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CHURCH CALENDAR 



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CHURCH 



CALENDAR 



BY 



MIGHILL H. BLOOD. 




WHEELER & LYNDE, PRINTERS 
185G. 






fs+h 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by 

MIGHILL H. BLOOD, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Maine. 



CHURCH CALENDAR 



INTRODUCTION. 



The sacred writings present a series of three Ecclesiastical Ad- 
ministrations, the Introductory and Formulary, the Christian and Arbitrary, 
the Christian and Liberal ; also, a series of Churches corresponding to 
them, whose historical names develop the characters of their respective 
missions — the Abrahamic and Israelite, the Catholic and Roman, the 
Evangelical and Puritan ; each of the last two duads bearing the marks 
of the first, by which they may be recognized as legitimate successors, 
and though unlike in the characters of their missions, each inherits from 
the Abrahamic and Israelite like careers, and leads to the grand con- 
summation promised to Abraham near thirty-eight hundred years ago, 
the blessing of all nations through his seed. 



PROGRAMME. 

The Scriptures present three parent Churches, having the follow- 
ing appellations and epochs : 

1. The Abrahamic Church, - - - B. C. 1936 

2. The Gentile Church, - - - May,A.D. 30 

3. Those men who had "the seal of God in 

their foreheads," (Rev. 9: 4.) - May, A. D. 1330 
Each of the three parent Churches has given birth to an offspring 
Church, which becomes a spiritual kingdom and falls into the temporal 
bondage of a foreign power at the termination of 300 years from the 
epoch of the parent Church, as follows : 

1. The Children of Israel at the death of Joseph, B.C. 1636 

2. The Church of Rome at the date of the 

removal of the seat of Government 

from Rome to Constantinople, - May, A. D. 330 

3. The Puritan Church, or the Governor 

and Company of Massachusetts Bay, 
at the date of their landing in Salem 
with a Charter from the king of 
England, June, A. D. 1630 



PROGRAMME. 



The Churches of the Hebrew and Christian dispensations accomplish 
eight Careers, which are either related, marked out, or alluded to in the 
scriptures ; in accordance with which ecclesiastical and profane histo- 
rians furnish much of the narratives of their Careers, with remarka- 
ble exactness, written as it were with the pen of inspiration. Infidels, 
Gibbon and Hame, as well as Christian writers, have carefully recorded 
the fulfillments of prophecy. 

In the first Administration the Abrahamic Church and Israel her off- 
spring become blended and are afterward known by the name of 
Israel, which extends her sovereignty over the earth of the old dispen- 
sation, (the nations of Canaan,) and accomplishes two Careers, an Ec- 
clesiastical and a Temporal. At the termination of the Careers of Israel, 
the sceptre of Judah is subverted by the power of the spiritual seed of 
Abraham on account of the apostasy of Israel. 

In the second Administration, the Jewish and the Gentile Churches 
become blended, and are known by the name of the Christian Catholic 
Church, which pursues and completes a Career partially accomplished 
by the Jewish Christian Church before their union. Unlike the 
Abrahamic Church in the former Administration, the Catholic Church 
retires into the wilderness for preservation at the time of the birth of her 
Offspring, the Roman Church ; yet she fulfills her career through the 
remnant of her seed, having the testimony of Jesus Christ, (Rev. 12 : 17,) 
which she leaves upon the theatre of the world.. Instead of the Mother 
Church the remnant of her seed becomes blended or associated with her 
Offspring, the Roman Church, and completes the prophecy in "sackcloth* 
which had been partially accomplished by the Mother Church before 
her retirement. The Roman Church extends her sovereignty over the 
earth, " rules all nations with a rod of iron," (Rev. 12 : 5,) and accom- 
plishes two Careers, an Ecclesiastical and a Temporal, — at the termina- 
tion of which the " woman" breaks down the Roman Church on account 
of her apostasy. 

In the third Administration, the seed of the woman having "gotten the 
victory over the beast" the woman in the wilderness appears, and they 
become associated under the name of the Evangelical Church, 
which completes a Career partially accomplished by the seed of the wo- 
man before her appearance. In due time, the Evangelical Church be- 
comes associated with her offspring, the Puritan Church, which has two 
Careers, extends the bounds of the Mother Church, and gives Republican 
Christian liberty to the entire world. 

The Careers of the American, or Puritan Church, the last of the series t 
extend 300 years posterior to the termination of the Career of the Mo- 
ther Evangelical Church, (Rev. 20,) and appear to have their termina- 
tion at the battle of "Gog and Magog," (Rev. 20 : 8, 9,) when the Lord 
destroys by fire from heaven an innumerable army hostile to his Saints, 
and opens a new order of things, which appears to be beyond the limits 
of time. 



FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 



ABRAHAMIC CHURCH. 

History presents the Ecclesiastical events of the past as harbingers of 
the present, and a glorious future in the Christian world. The history 
of the past is the history of ourselves. In the past we were formed. — 
From the past we receive our commission. We are sprung from the 
womb of the past into a sphere of action, committed to us, not by a law 
of fate, which looks to no moral result, but by the law of a wise Provi- 
dence, which wields the moral and physical energies of the world, and 
fills the earth with the glory of God. 

Near four thousand years ago, a people became vitalized with the 
principle of salvation by the divine Spirit, which yet blesses the 
race of man and radiates his prospects. Through the power of 
this principle in the seed of Abraham, the Christian world has attain- 
ed to, mighty results, and the present promises a future harvest abound- 
ing in rich things. A chain of periodical events connected with the 
operation of this principle runs through the past lapse of near forty 
centuries,and passes through many centuries to come, diversified and ren- 
dered wonderful by the various stages of the Church in its several rev- 
olutions. " God's hand is in History." 



ISRAEL. 
ECCLESIASTICAL CAEEER. 



TABLE 



Epoch. 



Captivity. 



Blindness. 



Millennium 



Reform. 



Progress. 



Bondage. 



Date of the removal of Jacob and his family from 
Canaan to the land of Goshen in Egypt, one 
thousand seven hundred end six years before 
Christ, according to the epoch of the vulgar 
Christian Era, - - 

Period of the sojourn of the Children of Israel in 
Egypt, a land of idolatry, hostile to their relig- 
ion, under the jurisdiction of Joseph, a ruler 
from among themselves, (and therefore in pos- 
session of temporal comforts,) terminated at his 
death, __-_--- 

Period of their sojourn in Egypt during the ab- 
sence of Moses, their deliverer, from the date of 
their rejection of him until his return fromMid- 
ian, 40 years, (Acts 7 : 25, 30,) synchronal. 

Period from the death of Joseph, comprising the 
periods of their rise to power and glory, and 
declension into idolatry, for which God said 
(2d Chron. 34: 24,) he would bring evil upon 
them — terminated about - 

Vacancy equivalent to the following periods : 
Bondage by Antiochus from B. C 167 

toB7C. 164, - - - 3i years 

Bondage in Egypt subsequent to the 

Career, about - 



Sum connected with the Period 

of bondage below, 
Termination of the vacant period, 



Ik year 



years 



Period of reform and repair of the temple of Jeru- 
salem by Josiah, terminated at his death, 

Period from the death of Josiah B. C. 610, exclu- 
sive of the period of absence during the Baby- 
lonian Captivity in the Temporal Career, 70 
years, — terminated at the epoch of the bondage 
of the priesthood in Egypt, - 



Periods of bondage stated above 
Period of bondage of the priesthood in 
Egypt, from B. C. 149, terminated at 
the date of the coming of Shiloh, " the 
prince of peace," B. C. 4, 



5 years 



145 yrs J 



Formal ecclesiastical worship, until the termina- 
tion of the temple millenium, A. D. 70. 



C. Year* 



1706 



1636 



70 



636 1000 



631 



610 21 



149 



391 



150 



ECCLESIASTICAL CAREER. 



Epoch and Dates. — The notation of the removal of Jacob in the 
Table agrees with Usher's date, as found in the English Bible, yet it 
denotes more time. The dates in this Calendar, in the Careers of Israel , 
signify not current but entire years, and generally agree with Usher's 
figures. 

Captivity. — The difference of 1 year between the date of the death 
of Joseph in the Table, and that in the English Bible, 1635, is unim- 
portant, as Usher's dates can be viewed only as approximations to the 
true dates, upon the consideration that the fractional parts of years per- 
taining to periods are not always stated in the Hebrew narrative, and 
are therefore not taken into account in the computation of dates by in- 
terpreters. 

Blindness. — This Period being concurrent with a part of the Millen- 
nium, and a synchronal Period,* makes no addition to the duration of the 
Career, and is therefore not carried into the column of Periods in the 
Table. The characteristic of this Period denotes their spiritual state. 

Millennium. — Joseph at his death informed the children of Israel 
that God would visit them and bring them out of Egypt, (Gen. 50 : 24,) and 
they thenceforth looked to God as their ruler. His special government 
as the king of Israel continued until B. C. 1095, the termination of 541 
years from the epoch of this Period, when Israel under an impulse of 
infatuation became restless and desired a king from among them- 
selves. And the Lord gave them a king according to their request ; yet 
* he commended it not, (1 Sam. 8 : 5 — 9, and 12 : 12.) For the remainder 
of the Period, 459 years, the kings of Israel and Judah reigned. 

The Lord suspended the evil he threatened upon Judah at the termin- 
ation of ihis Period, until Jos iah's death, on account of his righteousness. 

Reform. — Josiah is said (2 Chron. 34,) to have commenced the work 
of purging the land from idolatry in his " twelfth year" — or after eleven 
years of his reign had passed ; — also, it is said that he reigned 31 years — 
that he repaired the temple, using the funds in the keeping of Hilkiah the 
high priest, and his agency (2 Kings : 22,) — and that "when Josiah had 
prepared the temple," he went into battle with Necho, king of Egypt, 
and was killed. To the period of reform comprised between these two 
dates, 20 years, 1 year for preparatory work is added in the computa- 
tion by the writer, from the example of a year ot preparation in the cor- 
responding Period of the Temporal Career. 

The date of Josiah's death, at the termination of this Period, was the 
epoch of a period of great calamity to the Jews, the evil which God had 
threatened. " With Josiah," says Prideaux, " perished all the glory, 
honor and prosperity of the Jewish nation." 



*A Period always concurrent with some other Period or Periods. 



ISRAEL. 



It is worthy of notice, that Josiah and Cyrus, the two restorers of Is- 
rael and the temple of Jerusalem, were predicted and called by name by 
the prophets many ages before they lived. 

Progress. — This is a period of progress towards a new Era, opened 
by the re-appearance of the King of Israel,~-an ecclesiastical or spiritual 
king, according to the characteristic of this Career. 

Bondage. — Towards the close of the Progressive Period, Judah was 
severely scourged 3^ years, Jerusalem laid waste, and the daily sacrifice 
taken away by Antiochus,* "the vile person" predicted by Daniel, 
(Dan. 11 : 21—31.) The bondage of the priesthood and the child Jesus 
in Egypt after his birth, appears to have been a year or more from the 
command of Herod to slay all the children of Bethlehem from "two 
years old and under," as a considerable portion of this time must have 
passed between his birth and the date of Herod's order, which led him 
to the limit of two years in the age of the children. On account of the 
irregular occurrence of these two periods, (amounting to 4-i to 5 years,) 
the former conjunctively with another Period, as has been stated, and 
the latter subsequently to the Career, an equivalent allowance or blank 
period of time is substituted, thereby preventing an abbreviation of the 
time of the Career. 

Onias, son of Onias 3d, and heir to the pontificate of Jerusalem in di- 
rect lineal descent, fled to Egypt in consequence of the assassination of 
his father and substitution of another person in his place. He built a 
temple in Egypt B.C. 149, like the temple of Jerusalem, by a license 
from Ptolemy and Cleopatra. In this act he professed to fulfil the pro- 
phecy in the 19th chapter of Isaiah, "In thai day shall there be an altar to 
the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt" There were in this Period 
many Jews living in Egypt, and divine service was daily carried on in 
tnis temple by the priests and Levites.f Such was their history at the 
close of this Career, B.C. 4, 145 years from the date of the erection of 
the temple. This period of the temple service of the priesthood of 
Israel, under the government or yoke of a foreign prince and in a foreign 
land, was accordingly a period of ecclesiastical bondage. 

According to the preceding references, the whole time of ecclesiasti- 
cal bondage in this Career was 150 years. 

In anticipation of the period of the subsequent bondage of the child 
of Mary in Egypt, stated above, the infant Christian Church appears in 
the person of its founder and high priest, Jesus Christ. He is soon car- 
ried into Egypt, where he becomes locally connected with the Jewish 
people and priesthood in ecclesiastical bondage, whence he is returned 
at the termination of about 146i years from its epoch. Then was ful- 
filled the prophecy, " Out of Egypt have I called my son" — that is, out 



* Prideaux' Connexions, B. C. 167. 
f Prideaux' Connexions, B. C. 149. 



ECCLESIASTICAL CAREER. 



of the bondage of Egypt. In the fulfillment of this event Christ also 
appears as a prophet like unto Moses (Deut. 18 : 18, ) and comes as did 
Moses out of Egypt. Thus, in accordance with the ancient order of 
things in the Careers of Israel, the Christian Church and its priest and 
prophet come out of Egypt. By virtue of his descent from David, Christ 
appears also as its king — a spiritual king according to the import of this 
Career. 

The thing signified by the ceremonial worship of Israel having ap- 
peared, the ecclesiastical Career of Israel is therefore ended. Accord- 
ingly the ritual worship of the Jews from this date is only formal. 



10 



ISRAEL. 



TEMFOKAL CAEEEE. 



TABLE. 



Epoch. 



Bondage. 



B. C. Years 



Date of the death of Joseph, the epoch of their 
bondage in Egypt, - 



Period of bondage to Egypt — termi- 
nated at the crossing of the Red Sea, 

Vacancy equivalent to the following 
periods : 

Bondage of Simeon by Joseph prior 
to the removal of Jacob into Egypt, 
about - - - - - liyr 

Bondage of oppression by Pharaoh 
Nee ho, after the death of king Jo- 
siah from B. C. 610 to B. C. 607- 
about - - - - - 3Jyrs 



Sum connected with the period of 
bondage above, - - 5 yrs 

Termination of the vacant period, - « 



145 



5 yrs 



Wandering. 



Progress 



Captivity. 



Restoration. 



Millennium. 



Period of wandering in the wilderness after the 
I crossing of the Red Sea, 40 years, synchronal. 

Period Progressive — terminated at the inaugura- 
tion of Saul as king of Israel, (in the time of 
the wheat harvest,) - 

Period of Captivity by the king of Babylon (suc- 
ceeding the Period of oppression by Necho) 
from the third year of Jehoiakim, B. C. 607, (in 
the month of November,) - 

Period of Restoration and rebuilding the temple 
which was completed and dedicated on the 3d 
of Adar, (February,) B. C. 515, 

Period from the inauguration of Saul, exclusive of 
the periods of Captivity and Restoration — ter- 
minated at the coming of Shiloh, (in the month 
of September,) - 

Form of nationality until the termination of the 
temple millennium, A. D., 70. 



1636 



1491 



1486 



1095 



150 



391 



70 



21 



1000 



TEMPORAL CAREER. 11 



Epoch. — The date of the epoch of the bondage of the children of Is- 
rael, according to an Analysis of the Careers of the Church, must be at 
the termination of 300 years from the call of Abram from the land of 
Ur. The date of his birth being B. C. 1996, according to Usher, and 
his age at the date of his call 60 years, according to the careful com- 
putation of Abulfaragi,* (whom Dr. Hales considers the most critical au- 
thority,) consequently the epoch of this Career is B.C. 1636. 

Bondage. — After the death of Joseph the Israelites lived under the 
government or yoke of Egypt — a condition of bondage because it was 
the government of a foreign prince — or, according to the sacred writ- 
ings, they were always in bondage in their early ages whilst living in 
strange lands (Acts 7 : 6.) Yet, under the jurisdiction and protection 
of Joseph whilst governor of Egypt before this period, there was proba- 
bly no abridgement of temporal privileges, for he promised them " the 
good of all the land of Egypt" before their removal from Canaan. 

The retention of Simeon in bonds by the command of Joseph before 
the removal of Jacob to Egypt was necessarily a cause of a sore afflic- 
tion of the family and therefore composed a part of their Egyptian bond- 
age. Its time appears to have been more than a year from the words of 
Joseph, " for these two years hath the famine been in the land," — and 
in consideration of the two journeys of Jacob's son3 into Egypt to buy 
corn, between which the lapse of about a year probably intervened. 

The oppression of the Jews by Necho from the date of Josiah's death 
B.C. 610, in the month of July according to Jarchifi (who says there was 
an annual lamentation for Josiah on the 9th of Ab,) terminated at the 
epoch of the Babylonian captivity B. C.6074 in the month of Kerember,§ 
was also a period of Egyptian bondage — near 3h years. 

The binding of Simeon having occurred prior to the Career, and the 
period of bondage by Necho in synchronism with another Period, a blank 
period or substitution of an equivalent, about 5 years, succeeds the 
Period of bondage first stated. 

Progress. — The termination of this Period must have been at the 
date of the inauguration of Saul at Mizpeh, or at the date of his confir- 
mation at Gilgal soon afterwards in the time of the " wheat harvest," 
(1 Sam. 12 : 17,) which takes place in Judea about the month of May. 

Captivity. — Prideaux and others place the epoch of the Captivity in 
the fourth year of Jehoiakim, — but this disagrees with the statement of 
Daniel, who, (as Dr. Hales says in his Analysis,) is the best authority, 
and it is placed in the Table in the third year of Jehoiakim, as stated by 
the prophet (Dan. 1 : 1,2,) B.C. 607. 

Restoration. — According to Dr. Prideaux the Jews were released 
from captivity by Cyrus exactly at the termination of seventy years. 

*Hale's Analysis of Chronology. "Vol. 2d. p. 108. 

fDr. Gill's Exposition. 

I See Captivity. §Prid. Con. B.C. 606. 



12 ISRAEL. 



which took place, according to its epoch, as found above and in the 
Table, in November B.C. 537 ; and the first company of them who re- 
turned reached Judea in the month of Nisan, (which answers to our 
March,) four months after the termination of the captivity. They ar- 
rived in Judea a few days before the passover,* (B.C. 536.) 

After about a year's preparation, the Jews, under the superintendence 
of Zerubbabel, commenced the work of rebuilding their temple, which, 
on account of the opposition of the Samaritans and Artaxerxes a suc- 
cessor of Cyrus, was protracted. The house was completed in the 
sixth year of Darius (Ezra 6 : 15,) which according to Prideaux was the 
year B.C. 515, who computes the period of the work to be just 20 years ; 
to which however he makes room for the addition of another year by 
reason of his error of 1 year in the epoch of the captivity as shown 
above. The Period of rebuilding the temple appears then to have been 
21 years. It was finished and dedicated as is shown by the statement 
of Ezra, a few days before the passover (B.C. 515.) 

Millennium. — This Period, the balance of the Career, computed from 
the inauguration of Saul to the birth of Christ, exclusive of the Periods 
of Babylonian captivity and restoration, 91 years and four months, com- 
prises two divisions, 459 years and 541 years.f In the computation of 
this Period, the Temporal Period of bondage, Sh years, having occurred 
conjunctively with another Period and its time made up by an equiva- 
lent, is therefore not subtractive. The first division of the Millennial 
Period, 459 years, is the period of the power and glory of the Hebrews 
in the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah:}: — the second, 541 years, 
is the period of their decline to the termination of their Career at the 
coming of Shiloh, according to the prophetic declaration of Jacob, (Gen. 
49 : 10.) And at the appearance of Christ, through the all-engrossing 
power of Archelaus, Herod's successor, Judah's dominion ceased. 

After the departure of the sceptre of Judah, the Jews held a form of 
nationality, but powerless, until the termination of the period of the 
temple 1000 years, A.D. 70. 

The termination of the Millennial Period, computed from the inaugu- 
ration of Saul B.C. 1092, in the month of May, indicates the date of the 
birth of Christ in the year called B.C. 5 — in the month of September 
preceding B. C. 4, as noted in the Table. 

* Prid. Con. B.C. 536. 

f After the revolt of the ten tribes at the end of the reign of Solomon, and the 
division of the Israelites into the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, Israel be- 
came extinct in less than three hundred years, and the remainder of the Careers 
of Israel was fulfilled by Judah. 

% At the termination of this division of the Millennial Period, the Jews were 
fallen under the curse of God, (2 Kings, 21 : 12, and 2 Chron. 34 : 24,) the exe- 
cution of which however he suspended during the reign of Josiah on account of 
his personal piety, and, (as appears from their history,) for the fulfillment of the 
Period of external Reform in their Ecclesiastical Career. This Reform was 
essentially external, for they returned to idolatry as soon as Josiah died. 



SECOND ADMINISTRATION. 



The Careers of Israel are the basis of the Careers of the Churches in 
the Christian era in the following regulated form, except the first Career 
of the Christian Church, which is somewhat irregular. 



FORMULA 



YEARS. 



First. 



Second. 



Third. 



Fourth. 



Fifth. 



Period of bondage under the yoke of a foreign 
power, _______ 

Subsequent Period of bondage and oppression by a 
foreign power, ------ 

Whole time of bondage, - 

Period in an unsettled state or ecclesiastical blind- 
ness attended with trial and perplexity, succeed- 
ing the termination of the first period of bondage 
— 40 years — synchronal. 

Period in captivity or exile, succeeding the Periods 
of bondage, from which the Church is released 
by a sovereign who appears and adopts their 
cause at the termination of the captivity, 

Period of restoration, comprising a construction of 
the temple, ------ 

Both Periods synchronal*— sum, 

Period of progress, succeeding the Periods of bon- 
age, and terminating at the date of the epoch of 
the Church in a Regal state, or in its dissolution 
at the opening of a new Era, - 

Millennial Period — affixed in a Career of the 
Christian Church, and prefixed and affixed in the 
Careers of an Offspring Church in like manner 
as those of Israel. 



146^ 

3^ 



70 



21 



91 



150 



391 



Note.— The disciplinary Periods are preparatory for subsequent prosperity. 
* The Periods of Captivity and Restoration synchronize with the first 91 years 
•of the Period of progress. 



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16 CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 



The Careers of the Christian Church are of an ecclesiastical or spirit- 
ual character, attended with temporal discipline and blessings. 

Epoch and Bondage. — By an inversion of two Periods in the Eccle- 
siastical-Career of Israel, the long Period of bondage and the progressive 
Period, Christ appeared at the beginning of the Christian era, through 
the pre-established ecclesiastical course of things, as the representative 
and spiritual father of Israel in her Christian Career, and as her prophet, 
priest and king ; and having come out of the bondage of Egypt, that Period 
became consequently a connecting link between the two dispensations, 
to either or both of which it may appertain, (the high priest of Israel 
having represented Christ in his sacerdotal office,) and is therefore the 
first Period ia this Career of the Christian Church. The period of the 
ministry of Christ was just 3i years.*' 

Captivity and Judaical Blindness. — January 2d, four years before 
January 2d A.D. 1 in the Christian era, is here adopted as the epoch of 
the captivity of Christ, because of its adaptation to the computation of 
periods corresponding to the given periods and plan of computation in 
the Apocalypse. The epoch of the captivity is supposed to be the date 
of the removal of the child Jesus to Egypt by Joseph and Mary to elude 
Herod's pursuit of him to take his life. He was under the captivity of 
Herod as well as in Egyptian bondage during his expatriation, because 
he was in Egypt on account of the hostility of Herod. 

This Period of the Jewish Christian Church in connection with an- 
cient Israel 70 years, together with the year ormore of bondage ulterior 
to the termination of the Careers of Israel, amounting to about 71^ years , 
corresponding to the like periods of 70 years and Ik year in the Ecclesi- 
astical Career of Israel prior to their Temporal Career exhibits a curious 
connection of Israel with the Abrahamic and Christian ages — a spiritual 
bond as it were amalgamating the three churches. 

The Periods of captivity, 70 years, and trial and perplexity, 40 years, 
were signified by our Lord in his declaration a short time before his 
crucifixion, (A.D. 30,) that those afflictions (the first of which had begun 
with his life,) would continue until the coming of the Kingdom of God at 
the passing away of that generation, a period of 40 years in Jewish his- 
tory. In the latter Period the Jewish Christian Church were infected 
with a spirit of unbelief in the entire efficacy of the blood and sacrifice 
of Christ for the remission of sin, and on account of their spiritual blind- 
ness, like that of their fathers in discrediting the commission of Moses 
in a correspondent Period, (Acts 7: 25,) they adhered to the ritual wor- 
ship of the old Church — their minds were so mystified by a veneration 
for the ancient order of things, that they beheld not the full power of 
their deliverer, so long as they lived under the shadow of their temple, 
to which their ancestors had for ages looked for the power of salvation. 



Prid. Con. A.D, 30. 



FIRST CAREER. 17 



Restoration and Opening of the Kingdom of God. — At this point 
of the prophetic history of the Church by our Lord, terminating at the 
date of the destruction of Jerusalem, (Matt. 24,) he suspends its continu- 
ation to a subsequent day, when he appears to St. John in a vision at the 
Isle of Patmos, and after reviewing the state of the seven churches of 
Asia, he proceeds with the relation of events ; presenting first, (in the 4th 
and 5th chapters of Revelation,) a symbolic exhibition of the organiza- 
tion of the kingdom of God which had then come, as foretold, (Matt. 24,) 
attended with the rejoicing of the angels and all the tribes of men* — an 
emblematic presentation of associated events in the 6th chapter, com- 
prising the destruction cf Jerusalem in the sixth seal, and the gathering 
of the elect from " the four winds? (Matt. 24 : 31,) in the 7th chapter, con- 
sisting of an assemblage (or union) of the two churches, the Jewish 
Christian Church, called a hundred and forty-four thousand of the children 
of Israel, sealed in their foreheads, and the Gentile Church, " a great 
multitude ivhich no man dkild number of all natiions and people" — called in 
the expository prophecy (which commences with the 11th chapter,) Hhe 
two candlesticks" (symbolic names of churches, Rev. 1 : 20,) which, 
in association with their oil or light bearers, the two Testaments, {the 
law of God and the testimony of Christ, symbolized by the " two olive trees") 
are also called " the two witnesses" — a social alliance, either two acting 
in and with the power of its associates, and thus accomplishing the tri- 
umphs of the gospel. These are the quadruple alliance in the 7th chap- 
ter, the " four angels " holding the winds to hurt the earth, being com- 
missioned according to the exposition (Chap. 11,) to hurt their enemies, 
and also with power " to shut heaven," (hold the winds,) or terminate na- 
tional elevation ; (and accordingly, the great effort of the Jews after the 
destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70, to re-establish their nationality, was 
unavailing.) Well says Thomas Brightman, an English expositor of 
the 17th century, " we do gather and judge, that these two prophets [the 
two witnesses] are the Holy Scriptures, and the assemblies of the faith- 
ful ; there is no man that may not at the first sight behold, how fit both 
of these are for this office of being witnesses." 

The ritual temple service was not relinquished by the Jewish Christ- 
ian Church until the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem, which took 
place at the epoch of the construction of their new temple indicated by 
the end of their Captivity at the same date, the temple of God alluded to 
in the 7th chapter, (Rev. 7 : 15,) a temple upon a Catholic basis, (for the 
Gentile Church is represented as serving God in it,) and without rituals, 
Christ having executed in his own person at Calvary the rites of his re- 
ligion " once for all." Though without rituals, yet like the other temple 
which was its shadow it contains the rites — else it cannot be a temple of 

* The gospel had then been preached to " every creature," according to St. 
Paul. (Col, I: 23.) . 

3 



18 CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 



God. This temple, as capacious as the world, for it holds all the elect 
" day and night" is manifestly the Faith or Creed of the united Churches 
— for this is the only structure within the power of the Christian Church 
to form, according to the genius of its religion, containing the sacrifice/or 
sin. Its construction and establishment under the superintendence of 
St. John, (upon whom as the only living apostle at that period devolved 
the chief office of building up the Church,) appear from the types to have 
been a work of 21 years. Accordingly, John having been the agent in 
this work, (like Hilkiah or Zerubbabel in the Careers of Israel,) he is re- 
quired by our Lord in the expository prophecy (Chap. 11 : 1,) to render 
a measurement of it and its worshippers, who are found to be the two 
Churches or " candlesticks." From the date of the destruction of Je- 
rusalem (A. D.70,) signified by the first earthquake in the Christian era 
at the opening of the sixth seal, after which they are represented as as- 
sociated, (Chap. 7,) they " prophesy " or publish the word of God, in a 
united body. ^ 

Note. — The second prophecy, which is expository of the first, com- 
prises other history concurrent with that of the first — and they synchro- 
nize and run together from the termination of the Jewish dispensation 
to the termination of the Roman Church, and opening of the era of the 
reign of Christ " one tlwusand years ," (Rev. 20.) 

Progress. — In this Career there are two Progressive Periods towards 
the regal state, a Gentile and a Jewish Period, both commencing at the 
same date, (January 2, A. D. 4.) The first comprises the periods of Cap- 
tivity and construction of the temple, 91 years and 15 days, and the Pe- 
riod of 300 years from the rise of the Gentile Church at the date of the 
command of Christ " to preach the gospel to all nations" (May 14th, A. D. 
30,*) terminating at the date of the dedication of Constantinople to God 
by Constantine as the capital of his empire, (May 11th, A.D. 330,f) by 
which he changed his dominions, of which he was the spiritual as well 
as temporal king, from a pagan to a Christian kingdom, which is signi- 
fied by the second earthquake (Chap. 8 : 5.) 

The Gentile Church, by a system of exchange with the Jewish Church 
acquires spiritual dominion, and, being primitive like the Abrahamic 
becomes the parent of an Offspring Church under the dominion of a spir- 
itual king, at the termination of 300 years from her epoch. At the time 
of the destruction of Jerusalem, she opened her doors to the Jewish 
Church, driven from her land to which alone she had a title by the deed 
of the Lord to Abraham, (Gen. 17 : 8,) and became associated with her 
as a partner in her Careers. She gave her the world and received in 
return the ecclesiastical temporal ities*of the seed of Abraham. Hence, 
the part of the Progressive Period which would synchronize with the 



* The date of Christ's ascension, 
t Rees' Encyclopedia. 



FIRST CAREER. 19 



Periods of Captivity and Restoration in this Career by a regular compu- 
tation, equal to 91 years and 15 days, appears to be attached to the Gen- 
tile Period of 300 years terminating at the date of the birth of the Off- 
spring of the Gentile Church, and their sum 391 years and 15 days, to 
form a Progressive Period entitling the Gentile Church at its termina- 
tion to the right of a spiritual kingdom. Accordingly the two Churches 
appeared " in heaven," (Rev. 12,) — at the government of the empire of 
the world, as a mother church, (May 11th, 330J) undividedly entitled to 
spiritual dominion over the pagan nations of the earth, by virtue of one 
of the parties composiDg the mother Church, and gave birth to their 
Gentile Offspring, the Church of Rome, which Constantine erected into 
a State Church. The two Churches had a partial claim to the spiritual 
dominion of the world, and Constantine partially subdued paganism. 

The Jewish Progressive Period, running from the same date as the 
other, as before stated, and exclusive of both the periods of the ministry 
of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, just 3£ years each,* terminates at 
the date of the division of the Roman empire into " two wings," the east- 
ern and western empires, by Theodosius the Great, January 17th, 395,f 
just 391 years and 15 days. 

The ministry of the herald of Christ applies only to the Jewish Church 
— the Gentile being primitive like the Abrahamic has no precursor. 
The office of John was to proclaim the coming of the Lord to the Jews, 
and the time of his ministry must therefore be subtractive from the Pro- 
gressive Period, the epoch of which is after the advent of Christ. * 

The edicts of Theodosius, in harmony with the right of the Christian 
Church to complete spiritual dominion at the termination of this Period, 
extirpated paganism. " Now was extinguished," says Weber, "the sa- 
cred fire of Vesta — the oracles and sybils were silent — and the pagan 
pantheism yielded to the faith of the crucified Savior." 

Millennium. — From the date of the association of the two Churches, 
contemporary with the occurrence of the first earthquake, A. D. 70, 
" the two witnesses," according to the exposition (Chap. 11,) prophesy 
in sackcloth for a period of 1260 years. This period comprises a period 
intervening " Hween the first and second earthquakes, 260'years, and the 
Millennial Pe od which follows ; in the first of which the witnesses ex- 
ecuted their o. ace under the severe opposition of pagan governments. 
In the reign of Constantine at the epoch of the Millennial Period, though 
he had become a convert to Christianity and protected the Churches, yet 
by reason of his building up the Roman State Church, the woman clothed 
with the sun, (the two candlesticks having become a mother Church,) was 
not relieved from her habiliments of lamentation. Constantine yet re- 
tained the pagan exercise of lordship in spiritual things, (the dragon was 



* Prid. Con. 

t Clarke's Commentary. 



20 CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 



at court aa well as the woman, — Rev. 12 : 3,) and assumed from the 
first absolute authority in ecclesiastical affairs,— as is instanced in his 
commanding the admission of Arius (A.D. 330,) into the communion of 
the orthodox Church, which, though prevented by an act of providence 
in the death of Arius on his way to the church, gives evidence of the 
arbitrary prerogative of the emperor. The woman, (by whom may 
be understood the various sects of the orthodox faith at that day, called 
Puritans in the Romish history, the principal of whom were the Nova- 
tians,*) overborne by the power of the Church and State establishment 
which required uniformity, retired into obscurity — " fled into the wilder- 
ness," for safety, (Rev. 12 : 6,) to remain 1260 years, and left upon the 
public theatre of the world her Offspring Church under the dominion of 
the king, and " the remnant of her seed" blended with the Church of 
Rome and in possession of " the testimony of Jesus Christ," (Rev. 12 : 
17,) which fulfilled in sackcloth the millennial prophecy of this Ca- 
reer."! 

" There was war in heaven? a struggle between paganism and Chris- 
tianity. The dragon pursued the woman for a short period, who though 
in the wilderness was not yet in deep obscurity. Meanwhile, through 
the rising power of the Roman Church, paganism gave way and eventu- 
ally disappeared under the severe ordinances of Theodosius, the dragon 
became enraged, and the woman, after the death of the emperor which 
took place January 17, 395, fled from the wrath of the dragon, to the 
place of her seclusion in the wilderness for 1260 years upon "the two 
wings of an eagle? symbolizing the Roman empire, which Theodosius 
divided at his decease into the eastern and western Roman empires to 
make thrones for his two sons, Honorius and Arcadius. An inundation 
of pagans followed, which came rushing in great hordes towards Rome 
the very year of the death of Theodosius — the vomit of the dragon, (Rev. 
12 : 15,) to drown the woman. After which he turned his warfare 
against " the remnant of her seed" publicly fulfilling the prophecy of 
this Career, the remainder of which was indeed a prophecy in sackcloth, 
amid the enormous corruptions of Christianity arising from the flood of 
the dragon. 

The fall of the star, (Rev. 9 : 1,) marks the termination of this Period 
and end of this Career, which took place May 10, 1330, as will be shown 
in the Ecclesiastical Career of the Roman Church, 1 000 years from the 
second earthquake, signifying the end of the pagan Roman empire at the 
date of the dedication of Constantinople to God by Constantine, May 11, 



* So named from Novatus, the pastor of an orthodox Church in Rome in 
the middle of the third century. 

f In like manner ae Judah accomplished a long period of the Career of 
Israel. 



FIRST CAREER. 21 



330. There was manifestly no other public millennial prophecy, than 
that accomplished by the remnant of the seed of the woman, in this Ca- 
reer, for she herself was in the wilderness until after its termination se- 
cluded from public affairs. 

A brief narrative of the Church in the wilderness is subjoined to the 
Calendar in an Appendix. 



ROMAN CHURCH. 
ECCLESIASTICAL CAKEEE. 



TABLE. 



Epoch. 
Millennium 



Bondage. 



Progress. 



Date of the second earthquake (Rev. 8:5,) May 11, 

Period from the rise of the Christian Roman em- 
pire denoted by the second earthquake, comprising 
the progress of the Roman Church to ecclesias- 
tical power and glory and its declension into 
idolatrv, terminated at the fall of the star, (Rev. 
9: l,)May 10, 

Period of spiritual bondage in the worship of idols 
from the fall of the star to the loosing of the "four 
angels" at the sounding of the sixth trumpet, 
"Jive months" (Rev. 9 : 10,) terminated, - 

Period of conflict with the four angels, u an hour, 
and a day, and a month, and a year," terminated 
in the dissolution of the idolatrous Church, 



A. D. Years 



330 



1330 



1480 



1871 



1000 



150 



391 

15 days 



The genealogy of this Offspring Church at the termination of 300 
years from the rise of its parent Gentile Church has been shown in the 
preceding Career. 

The Table is a comprehensive exhibition of this Career, in accord- 
ance with its sketch given in the sacred text, (Rev. 8th & 9th,) in which 
only the long Periods are signified and marked, amounting to the whole 
time of the duration of the Career. The short Period of bondage, 3£ 
years, (comprehended in the composite Period of 150 years,) and the 
synchronal Periods of spiritual blindness, and captivity and restoration, 
all of an idolatrous and antichristian character, (having occurred after 
the Roman Church had become Antichrist and devoted to idolatry, as 
will be shown,) lead therefore only to the building up of an idolatrous 
and antichristian Church, and appear to be unnoticed in the prophetic 
account. Accordingly, they are about as unimportant in tracing the 
progress of the seed of Abraham as the history of a pagan people. Yet 
they lead to a re-invigoration of the Roman Church in the period of its 
conflict with the " four angels," suddenly risen to power, and will be 
briefly noticed at their date in the narrative, except the Period of blind- 
ness, — undiscovered. 

In consequence of the change of the Roman empire from pagan to 
Christian by Constantine at the date of the change of the seat of gov 
eminent from Rome to Byzantium, (which he called Constantinople frosr 



ECCLESIASTICAL CAREER. 23 

his own name,) the Church of Rome, to which he had given precedence 
and the strength of his royal power, became a State institution ; and by- 
reason of its descent from the Catholic Church and possession of its faith, 
the prophecy (Rev. 12,) was fulfilled in its birth and elevation to the 
throne, called "the throne of God," in like manner as David's throne was 
called " the throne of the Lord." Its founders contended earnestly 
against the power of paganism, and for the establishment of the Christian 
faith, and " overcame the dragon by the blood of the Lamb." It rose 
by the appointment of God to carry on the ways of his mysterious provi- 
dence. Its distinguishing office appears to have been to execute retrib- 
utive justice to the corrupt nations — " to rule all nations with a rod of 
iron." 

Millennium. — The Millennial Period like its correspondent in the 
Ecclesiastical Career of Israel is composed of two divisions, 541 years 
and 459 years. In the first division the emperor or civil ruler of Rome 
was the king of the Church. In 871, the year of its termination, Pope 
Hadrian II. exercised the first act of sacerdotal sovereignty in comman- 
ding Hinkmar ; the Bishop of Laon in France, to appear at Rome, and 
also the king, Charles the Bald, to send Hinkmar to him.* Though 
Charles at first resented the papal ordinance with marked indignation, 
he soon after maintained it in consideration of receiving the imperial 
crown from the pope. The crown which had before this been occasion- 
ally imposed by the bishop of Rome, as a ceremony, became from this 
time his fief. The emperor was the avowee or protector of the papacy 
and the pope the arbitrator of crowns and imperial pope. The bishop of 
Rome was now spiritual lord of the Roman Church and of kings. — 
Though he was four or five years in consummating the act of his as- 
sumption in 871, yet its date is the date of his rise to sovereignty. His 
temporal elevation, which is here found in combination with his ecclesi- 
astical advancement, pertains to the Temporal Career, 

In the last division of this Period the Roman Church descended into 
gross idolatry. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, " all worship of God 
was merged in the worship of saints, and the character of this was such 
as was to be expected from an uncultivated, immoral and superstitious 
age. The world was full of relics and miracles, the fruits of pious fraud 
and pious folly." In the thirteenth century, " the countless legions of 
the saints everywhere show the love of wonders, and the rude notions of 
morality which characterize the age. The heathen Saturnalia were an- 
nexed by the clergy to the festivals of the church, Sid a mockery of 
everything holy allowed under this screen." Auricular confession 
and the system of indulgences, kindred to them, were also introdu- 
ced, " which the theologians of the thirteenth century did not scruple 
to justify on dogmatical grounds. Alexander Hales and Albert Mag- 

* Neander's Hist, of the Church, vol. 3, pp. 364—366. 



24 ROMAN CHURCH. 



nus invented the doctrine of a thesaurus supererrogationis per- 
fectorum, (treasure of superfluous good deeds of the holy [the dead 
who had been canonized,]) the keys of which were held by the pope. 
By this means they were enabled to blot out the sins not only of 
the living but of the dead, and even of those already in purgatory. 
This doctrine was more fully developed by Thomas Aquinas."* 

The Pseudo-Isidorean notion of the Pope, as the universal bishop of 
the Church, was now carried to the extent before unthought of. The 
pope was now the vicar of Christ, and such was his supremacy over the 
laws, that he could give dispensation from their observance, " ante fact- 
um" (before the deed.) The doctrine of the infallibility of the pope 
(the reputed successor of St. Peter,) was now gradually brought forward. 
The popes laid claim also to new rights, the universal right of absolu- 
tion and dispensation, the exclusive rights of canonization ; and 
finally, in spite of all opposition, the right of exacting contributions 
from the churches.f 

According to the characteristic of this Career, the operations announc- 
ed by the first six trumpets, which comprise its Periods, appear to be of 
an ecclesiastical or spiritual character, the first four of which embraced 
withm this Period, as they do not necessarily come within the plan of 
this Calendar, and as their figurative language seems to be such as may 
bear much speculation, will therefore be passed over here, except by of- 
fering a few suggestions upon the symbolic representations under the 
fourth trumpet, which appear to be an admirable picture of the anti- 
christian and idolatrous dogmas of the Roman Church, stated in the 
preceding paragraphs, — by viewing the sun, moon, and stars as emblem- 
atical of God, Christ the Mediator, and the ministers of the several Church- 
es within the Roman empire. By the raising of the pope to infalli- 
bility and head of the Church, Christ, one of the three persons of the 
triune God, a third part of the sun, is smitten ; by the invention «of the 
treasure of superfluous merits, Christ as our substitute, (one of the three 
offices of his mediatorship, substitute, priest and intercessor,) a third 
part of the moon, is smitten — by the idolatry and antichristian despotism 
of the Roman Church, its ministry, a third part of the stars, is smitten 
— the three parts of the stars being those of the Offspring Church, 
those of the seed of the woman prophesying in sackcloth, and those 
of the woman in the wilderness. And Christianity is darkened by 
the power of gxpss idolatry. 

One thousand years having passed from the date of the dedication 
of Constantinople by Constantine, May 11th, 330, the imperial pope 
fell — "a star fell from heaven to the earth," Rev. 9:1. In remark- 



* Gieseler's Text Book of Eccl. Hist, 
t Gieseler's Text Book, vol 2, pp. 340— . 



ECCLESIASTICAL CAREER. 25 

able fulfillment, an epistle bearing the date of May 10th, 1330, 
(O.S.) was sent by the Franco-Italian pope John XXII. to Count Boniface 
for the arrest of the imperial pope, Nicholas V.,* called in Roman his- 
tory an antipope, yet he was the legitimate incumbent, for he had been 
raised to the pontificate in accordance with the nomination of the empe- 
ror the avowee of the papacy, and John XXII. had been deposed by his 
order. The arrest was executed, and Nicholas was carried to Avignon 
with a rope around his neck and died in prison ; soon after which the 
German princes at an electoral diet at Rense annulled the validity of 
the papal imposition of the crown, by an act which thenceforth became 
the law of the land. The bugbear which had existed in the infatuated 
world, that a crown without the confirmation of the pope was untenable? 
exploded, and Peter's reputed successor, who had nearly reached the long 
contested pinnacle cf superiority to the emperor, was now but a dependent of 
the French king. Yet this was not the end of infatuation. 

Bondage. — The bishop of Rome from this date, May 10th, 1330, 
though without crowns to bestow, was still pope, and retained the keys 
given to the papacy in the thirteenth century as before shown, enabling 
him to unlock the " treasury of supererogation," and thereby blot out 
the sins not only of the living, but the dead, even those in Purgatory .f 
" To him was given the key of the pit of the abyss," (Rev. 9 : 1, literally 
rendered,) which appears to be the key of the pit of the world of the de- 
parted, or of things that have been and have disappeared. " And he 
opened the pit of the abyss,"} (v. 2,) the great furnace of punishment, pur- 
gatory, according to Roman theology, and by the smoke of the pit, (not 
the smoke of the abyss,) he terrified the world, which he enslaved in 
chains of oppressive spiritual bondage. By an adroit use of the revela- 
tions of this smoke, (the bugbears of the priest,) disclosing the history 
and state of the wicked dead, he carried on a system of horrors by the 
appliance of stringent penal statutes, punishments and penances, which, 
like the destructive locusts in the field, preyed upon the peace, happi- 
ness and estates of the deluded multitudes in that age of superstition. 

The ordinances of the reputed vicar of the Lamb, clothed with the 
power of despotism «by which they were enforced, seem to be fitly sym- 
bolized by the grotesque " shapes " or appearances of the locusts, (Rev. 
9,) representing the strange combination of the spirit of the war horse, 
the ruling of man, the gentleness of woman, the fierceness of the lion and 
the evil sequel to the victims of such a system. 

The historical records of that age abound in kindred terrors. 



* Fleurii Hist. Ecc. John XXII., p. 380. 

f See 24th page. 

X The Greek phrase here rendered " pit of the abyss," is found only in these 
two verses in the Apocalypse. Abyss simply is the literal translation of the term 
rendered " bottomless pit" elsewhere in the English Bible. The king of the lo- 
custs was the "angel of the abyss,"— in accordance with the system of Ro- 



26 ROMAN CHURCH. 



The trade of the priests in indulgences which was systemized in the 
beginning of this Period, is unequaled in enormity. " To regulate this 
traffic," says D'Aubigne, " they invented, probably in the pontificate of 
John XXII., # the celebrated and scandalous tax for indulgences, of which 
more than forty editions are now extant ; a mind of the least delicacy 
would be shocked at the repetition of the horrors therein contained. — 
Incest was to cost, if not detected, five groschen, if known or flagrant, 
six. A certain price was affixed to the crime of murder, another to in- 
fanticide, adultery, perjury, &c."f 

The images of saints were everywhere, and relics, supposed to be ani- 
mated with the spirit of the dead, found a lodgment in almost every 
dwelling and terrified its occupants. At the termination of 146£ years 
and a month from the epoch ot this Period, the Roman Church appears 
to have reached its maximum point in saint-worship, and to have found 
relief by the elevation of the virgin Mary to an order of divinity. On 
the first of March, 1476, a constitution was published by pope Sixtus IV. 
to settle the long disputed question concerning the Virgin ; in which he 
offered extraordinary indulgences to all who would celebrate the festival 
of the immaculate conception of the Virgin. This was immediately rat- 
ified with great rejoicing by an assemblage of the people on the appoint- 
ed day, which was its first celebration by the Roman Church, according 
to Fleury.J This appears to have taken place on the 8th of December, 
as that is the date of the celebration of the immaculate conception accor- 
ding to the Calendar of the Roman Church. By this event their first 
Period of bondage m spiritual idolatry, 146£ years, was terminated ; and 
they found in the Virgin an intercessor other than Christ, (whom they 
regarded as a stern judge, says Myconius, a writer of the Reformation,) 
and they glorified her as " the real controller of all events — and the Ave 
Maria became the favorite prayer ."§ Accordingly, the Roman Church is 
now fully gone over to idolatry, has blotted out Christianity, and ap- 
pears to be fully Antichrist. 

The remaining Period of spiritual bondage of like character which 
followed, 3& years, by the power of the papacy, completes the whole 
time of the power of the locusts — " their power was to hurt men five 
months," (Rev. 9: 30,) which being thirty days to the month, and a day 
for a year, was 150 years, and terminated A. D. 1480. 

Progress. — The power of the locusts to hurt men has terminated, 
not in the end of their power to hold men in spiritual darkness, but in 
the consummation of a system of idolatry, remaining unchanged (in which 
the Roman Church glories,) to the end of their Career. This Church 

* Pope at the epoch of this Period. 

t D'Aubigne, vol. 1, p. 38. 

X Summo jubilo praeseus Sixti iv. Constitutio ab omnibus recepta fuit, 
estque de festo immaculatse Conceptionis omnium prima quam ab Ecclesia Ro- 
mana conditam fuisse novimus. — Fleurii His. Ec. Tom. 29, p. 557. 

§ Gieseler vol. 3, p 315. 

• 



ECCLESIASTICAL CAREER. 27 



now { A. D. 1480J comes into conflict with the "four angels* bound 
at (epi)\ the great river Euphrates." This figurative expression of the lo- 
cality of the " four angels," evidently signifies their Period in captivity 
{like that of the typical Period of the Jews in captivity at the Euphrates,) 
which will be considered in its proper place, in the second Career of the 
Christian Church. The "four angels," who now come into ecclesiastical 
hostility with the Roman Church, are " loosed," not from their captivity 
but in it, so that they carry on the cause of the gospel. Here there i3 
an exposition of the synchronism of the Periods of captivity in the 
Christian era with the early part of the Periods of Progress. The Pe- 
riod of captivity, by reason of its becoming a period of ecclesiastical ac- 
tion by the loosing of the angels, is therefore a component part of the pro- 
gressive Period. " The four angels," who then consisted of the Hussite 
and Waldensian Churches, (which became united in 1480,) and the Scrip- 
tures (which they translated and published early in this Period,)^ were 
" loosed" in the year 1480 by a treaty of the humane Uladislaus, king of 
Bohemia, with the Utraquists.§ Consequently, the Hussite Church, 
(which had been banished by the papal party,) removed from their seclu- 
sion, (in the woods,) and settled in the towns of Bohemia and Moravia. 
Then commenced the Period of the progress of evangelical truth. In 
the year 1500 there were two hundred congregations of the Bohemian 
or Hussite Church in Bohemia and Moravia. In 1517 Luther appeared. 
Captivity and Renovation. — The epoch of the Captivity of the 
Roman Church, (under the oppression of the pope, who in the time of 
this Career is the oppressor of his own flock as well as of the evangeli- 
cal people,) occurred also in 1480. By uniting politics with their spirit- 
ual power in this Period, the popes raised armies, seized upon several 
principalities, made themselves kings of the states of the Church in Italy, 
and thereby founded a formidable power in the papacy. " Formerly," 
says Macchiavel, " no baron was so insignificant as not to despise the 
papal power ; now a king of France stands in awe of him." The Baby- 
lonian character of the papacy was fully developed in this Period in 
that of the monsters who occupied the pontificate, under whom the spirit- 
ual bondage of their votaries like that of the preceding Period was con- 
tinued. Following this the Roman Church became renovated by the 
formation and establishment of its Creed, known in general by the name 
of Popery, consisting of the profession of faith drawn up by the Council 
of Trent, which was assembled for the purpose of reform by Julius III.|| 
A. D. 1550, and continued its sessions until 1563 — together with the 
creed of Pius IV., containing a summary of the principal heads of the 

* See 17th page, 
f Literally rendered. 

X In the year 1500 the Hussites had three printing presses in Bohemia ana 
Moravia. 

§ Gieseler Vol. 3, p. 371, note. 
f| Bees' Cyclopedia. 



28 BOMAN CHURCH. 



Roman religion. Of the pontificate of Pius V., the confirmer of this sys- 
tem, says Ranke, "the ordinances of the Council of Trent had every- 
where gained a living power ; all the bishops swore to the Professio 
Fidei, in which is embodied the substance of the dogmatic rules of the 
council, and pope Pius published the Roman catechism in which these 
are still more fully developed."* He died in 1572, just after the ter- 
mination of 91 years from the epoch of the Period of captivity, and Pop- 
ery, (an idolatrous temple,) has remained to this day as he left it. 

The Church of Rome, (though much abridged in its magnitude by the 
" four angels,") was now comparatively restored by its renovation and 
the acquirement of temporal power by the papacy in Italy. Says Ranke, 
" with new and collected strength Catholicism now advanced to the con- 
flict with the protestant world. The pope was not only able to unite 
the strength of the other catholic powers for one common effort, but 
he had a territory of his own sufficiently powerful to contribute materi- 
ally to its success."f From this time the Church of Rome makes ad- 
vances, yet she loses ground — she increases in bulk, yet she loses power ; 
and her Ecclesiastical organization, " the third part of men"X must fall 
under the accumulating pressure of the four angels, " who are prepared 
for an hour and a day and a month and a year? which by computation 
(360 days for the year, 30 days for the month, and a day for a year,) is 
391 years and 15 days, and terminates A. D. 1871, on about the 6th of 
June, if the date of the letter of John XXII., May 10th 1330, (old style,) 
lor the arrest of Nicholas V., is the exact date of the fall of the imperial 
pope. 

Note. — The action of the late council at Rome upon the subject of 
the immaculate Conception appears to have been, according to the re- 
port of the bishops, only a new explanation of a doctrine before received 
by the pious. 

* Ranke's History of the Popes, Vol. 1, p. 226. 
f Ranke's History of the Popes, Vol. 1, p. 231. 

+ Human society consists of three component societies, the popular, the po- 
litical and the ecclesiastical. 

■ 



TEMPORAL CAREER. 



TABLE. 



Epoch. 



Bondage. 



Captivity. 



Renovation. 



Progress. 



Millennium. 



Date of the second earthquake, (Rev. 8 : 5,) May 
11th, 



Period of the political bondage of Rome 
from the date of the second earthquake 
to the extinction of the western Roman 
empire, A.D. 476, - 

Periodof oppression by a barbarian king, 
terminated A.D. 480, - 



U6h yrs. 
3£yrs. 
Period of perplexity 40 years, undiscovered. 



Period of barbarian captivity from the 
end of the Periods of bondage, (A. D. 
^80,) terminated by the intervention of 
Justinian, A.D. 550, 70 yrs. 

Period of the construction and estal^sh- 
ment of the Roman law, (the polmcal 
temple) by Justinian, terminated A. D. 
571, 21 yrs. 

Sum, 91 yrs. 

Period Progressive, succeeding the Periods of bon- 
dage — terminated at the date of the assumption 
of sovereignty by Hadrian II., 

Period from the date of the assumption of sover- 
eignty by Hadrian II., to the dissolution of the 
Roman Church, - 



A. D. Years 



330 



150 



871 



1871 



391 



1000 



Bondage. — By the removal of the seat of government from Rome to 
Constantinople, Italy became a western province of the Byzantine dy- 
nasty, and the Church and people of Rome became politically the sub- 
jects of an eastern power. Constantine abolished the constitution of the 
Roman empire, vested all power in the imperial throne, and established 
a galling system of taxation. From the division by Theodosius the west- 
ern provinces became the western Roman empire, and so continued un- 
der the yoke of some foreign prince or conqueror until its extinction, A. 
D. 476, by Odoacer who assumed the title of King of Italy, 146& years 
from the removal of Constantine, constituting the first Period of bondage. 
The reign of Odoacer was cruelly oppressive and became but little re- 
laxed during its earlier years, the first 3i years of which appear to be 



30 HOMAN CHURCH. 



denoted as the short Period of bondage completing the specified time, 
150 years — terminating A. D. 480. 

Captivity. — The condition of Rome A. D. 480 remained unchanged, 
the termination of its Periods of bondage being the epoch of its Period 
of Captivity, which was of like character, in which it continued under 
the dominion of barbarian and Arian kings until its termination A. D. 
550, when it was delivered from the captivity of the Gothic kingdom by 
Justinian, the Byzantine emperor, at the importunity of pope Vigilius 
and a patrician of Rome who had been sent to him by the people of 
Rome for aid, (A. D. 549,) and " adjured him in the name of God and the 
people to resume the conquest and deliverance of Italy."* 

Renovation. — In the subsequent Period of 21 years the Roman code 
of law, known as " the Justinian Code" was constructed and established 
in Italy by its deliverer and his successor. At the^ermination of this 
Period, A. D. 571, the Lombards established their kmgdom in Italy, and 
the emperor irretrievably lost his western provinces ; but his world-re- 
nowned edifice stood unshaken by his defeat. The city of Rome re- 
mained under the government of his exarch for several years, and Roman 
jurisprudence became extended throughout Christendom and prevailed 
until the Reformation, about a thousand years. 

Millennium. — First^ivision, 459 years, from the date of the assump- 
tion of political sovereignty by Hadrian II. in commandiDg Hinkmar to 
Rome, to the date of the fall of the imperial pope, A. D. 1330.f In this 
division the bishop of Rome rose to the exalted poWer before alluded to 
of arbitrating crowns ; and further than this, he aimed at absolute domin- 
ion in the affairs of both Church and State, and nearly attained to it 
before its termination. The second division, 541 years, now drawing 
near to its close, exhibits an immense loss to the Church of Rome, and 
indicates its temporal dissolution at the termination of the Period, A. 
D. 1871. 

* Gibbon Vol. 4, p. 265. 
f See Ecclesiastical Career. 



THIRD ADMINISTRATION.* 



CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
SECOND CAKEER. 



TABLE 



Dates. 



Epoch. 



Bondage. 



Darkness. 



Captivity. 



Restoration. 



Progress. 



Millennium 



Date of the fall of the star, (Rev. 9 : 1, 
May 10th 

Period of malignant hostility of "the least" 
to the two witnesses after the end of 
their prophecy, (Rev. 11 : 7,) — from the 
date of the fall of the star to the con- 
summation of Antichrist, 

Period of the death of the two witnesses, 
" three days and a half" (Rev. 11 : 9,) 
terminated at their resurrection, 

Period of twilight from the date of the 
perfection of Antichrist, (A.D. 1476,) to 
the appearance of Luther, 

Period of the captivity of the two witness- 
es, (the four angels loosed, Rev. 9: 15, 
from the date of their resurrection, (A. 
D. 1480,) to the epoch of reform by Ed- 
ward VI. king of England, 

Period of reform and establishment of the 
orthodox Creed terminated and con- 
firmed by Elizabeth, 

Sum, 

Period of evangelical reformation from the 
resurrection of the two witnesses, A. 
D. 1480, (the epoch ofthe^clesiastical 
action of the four angels,mev. 9 : 15,) 
to the date of the dissolution of the 
Roman Church, and epoch of the reign 
of Christ, (Rev. 20 : 4,)— an hour and a 
day and a month and a year, (Rev. 9: 
15,) terminated 



A.D. 

1330 



1476 
1480 

1516 

1550 
1571 



Period of the reign of Christ, (Rev. 20: 4,) 
terminated 2871 



1871 



Periods. 



Years. Year9. 



40 

70 
21 



150 



91 



391 

15 days 
1000 



The remnant of the seed of the woman, who have inculcated " the tes- 
timony of Jesus Christ" and withstood the power of the dragon through- 
out the Millennial Period of the first Career, now appear, (A. D. 1330,) 
with "the seal of God" upon their foreheads (Rev. 9 : 4,) designating 
their constancy, and open a second Career of the Christian Church. 

• Order of the Periods according to the Formula on 13th page. 



32 CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 



Bondage. — This Period, synchronized with the Period of "jive montlis^ 
(Rev. 9 : 5,) appears to be signified by the hostility of the beast in the 
exposition, (Rev. 11 : 7.) An immediate change in the condition of the 
remnant of the seed of the woman is not conspicuous in their history ; 
but as the Period advances the enmity of the Roman Church becomes 
malignant and surfeited with rage. At the epoch of this Career they 
were in general known by the name of Lollards, a term of reproach. At 
a subsequent date, a branch of them who appeared in England were 
called Wickliffites, from the name of WicklirTe, who flourished before 
the middle of this Period, a bright luminary in the cause of the gospel, 
for their inculcation of which, and especially for their use of the transla- 
tion of the Bible by him, they were violently persecuted by the Roman 
priesthood. His writings were transmitted to Bohemia through the in- 
strumentality of queen Anne and a Bohemian nobleman which led to 
the conversion of John Huss, an eminent professor in the University of 
Prague. Through the power of his preaching, (for which he suffered 
martyrdom by the celebrated council of Constance,) great numbers 
adopted the faith of the gospel and formed a powerful party which con- 
tended for the use of the cup by the laity in the sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper. A sanguinary war followed under the command of Ziska and 
Procopms on the part of the Hussites, which raged furiously for thirteen 
years. They effected several brilliant victories over the imperial forces, 
after which a treaty of peace was made granting them the use of the 
cup and its administration in their own language. By this event the 
Hussites became by the law of the land an organized Church. This 
state of things however was of short continuance. There were two 
parties of the Hussites — the Calixtines and the genuine followers of 
Huss. The true Hussites desired, besides the scriptural celebration of 
the sacrament, a real reformation of the Church. The Calixtines, who 
were satisfied with the liberty of the cup and the administration of the 
ordinance in their own language and in other respects resembled the 
papists, were induced by their artifices to persecute the other party, 
"who, after a long series of military confusion/' says Milner, "found 
themselves still a persecuted body of men, and those of them who had 
been inclined to have recourse to the sword, were gradually convinced 
that patient faith and perseverance in prayer are the proper arms of a 
christian soldier. Never indeed was there a more striking instance of 
the inefficiency of carnal weapons in defending the Church of Christ."* 
By the intrigues of the council of Basle, at a later day, they became 
much enfeebled. Says Milner again, " the persecutions now took a 
different turn ; the Hussites were no longer tortured, but were driven 
out of the country ; whence they were obliged to hide themselves in 
mountains and woods, and to live in the wilderness. In this situation 

* Milner's Church History. 



SECOND CAREER. 



in the year 1467, they came to a resolution to form a church among them- 
selves and to appoint their own ministers. 11 

This people remained several years in their seclusion from the world, 
where they were obliged to deny themselves the use of fires in the day- 
time lest their smoke should disclose their location. Yet they had spirit- 
ual life in the world so long as their allies the Scriptures held any vitality 
among men. 

It has been shown in the Ecclesiastical Career of the Roman Church, 
thlt she became fully antichrist by her ratification " summo jubilo" 
(with extreme rejoicing,) of the constitution of Pope John XXII., at the 
festival of the conception, Dec. 8, 1476, whereby she adopted the virgin 
Mary as her intercessor, regarding Christ as a stern judge. By this act 
of the Roman Church, Christianity was blotted out. The witnesses were 
now slain. At this date they issued from their first Period of bondage 
at the termination of its time, 1464 years, and entered the bondage of 
" Sodom and Egypt" (Rev. 11:8,) in a lifeless condition — they were 
dead — the Hussite Church suppressed, and the Scriptures bereft of vitality ; 
yet not buried, not "put in graves, 11 for the Church, though ecclesiasti- 
cally dead, required to be guarded in its seclusion to prevent its action — 
and the Scriptures, though deprived of public power, were yet preserved 
in the cloisters of the priesthood :• — though their suppressors worshipped 
idols and not Christ, yet they retained his name — though they had be- 
come antichrist and martyred Christianity, yet they preserved its carcase. 
In the year 1480, the termination of the Period of 3£ years, the Bohemian 
Church in the wilderness " received a great increase of their numbers 
from the accession ofWaldensian refugees, who escaped out of Austria, 
where Stephen, the last bishop of the Waldensees in that Province, was 
burnt alive"* — and relief came also by way of the treaty of Uladislaus 
before mentioned, with the Utraquists,f by which the Hussite Church was 
again recognized by the law of the land. Then* appears to have been 
fulfilled the words of the text (Rev. 11 : 11,) " after three days and a half 
the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet. 11 — 
Thus terminated the bondage of those who had the " seal of God 11 in their 
foreheads (Rev. 9 : 5,) contemporaneous with the Ecclesiastical bond- 
age of the Roman Church, "five months, 11 which being thirty days for a 
month, and a day for a year, is 150 years. In connection with these 
events, " the woman in the wilderness" (in whose communion were the 
Waldensian refugees above mentioned,) attained an eminence, which ap- 
pears to be signified by her position on mount Zion," Rev. 14 : 1. 

Darkness. — The new Church soon after the favorable action of the 
king in 1480 came out of the wilderness and flourished for several years, 
yet by reason of persecution they dwindled in the latter part of this 



* Milner's Church History, 
t See page 27. 

5 



34 CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 



Period. Though they possessed and enjoyed the faith of the gospel, y et f . 
amidst the gross darkness which surrounded them, their pilgrimage ap- 
pears not to have been lightened by the meridian splendor of the sun of 
righteousness, and they remained obscure and exposed to the skill and 
persecution of their enemies for 40 years from the end of their first Pe- 
riod of bondage in 1476. 

In the year 1516, Luther, the Joshua of the protestant Church, appear- 
ed and made known to the chapters in his circuit the doctrine of "justi- 
fication by faith." In 1517 he preached it at court and opened the exi- 
gence of the gospel to the nations of Europe. In him is seen the joint 
leader of Israel and reformer of Christendom. 

Captivity, Restoration, and Progress. — At the termination of the 
Period of Bondage (A. D. 1480,) the epoch of the Periods of captivity 
and progress, the " four angels" according to the Apocalypse appear to 
have been " loosed" in their captivity at the great river Euphrates. In a 
few years after the appearance of Luther, the Evangelical Church receiv- 
ed the support of princes and numerous adherents. " There was a great 
earthquake" — a shaking of the nations. " The tenth part of the city fell" — 
perhaps Germany, one of the ten Kingdoms, (Rev. 17 : 12,) which fell 
from the support of Rome, A. D. 1552, before the army of Maurice of 
Saxony. 

Henry VIII. became providentially instrumental of the introduction 
of protestantism into England. His hostility to the pope because he 
refused him a sentence of divorce from Catherine his queen, which 
prompted him to separate the English Church from Rome, and make 
himself its head, savored not of favor to the protestant religion, for he 
was hostile to Luther and the Reformation. By his course however he 
undermined the walls of Babylon, as did Cyrus his prototype, and led 
the way to the glorious events which followed his death. His 
people leaned strongl)«towards the new doctrines, and his youthful son 
and successor, Edward VI., through Warwick the protector, strenuously 
put into force the power of the crown, (like young Josiah his prototype 
in Israel, )for the purging of England from Roman idolatry. Luther died 
in 1546, Calvin the doctor of the Reformation had appeared and sys 
tematized its doctrines, Edward fully espoused its cause, and his council 
revised the English liturgy and embodied in it the doctrines of faith as 
professed by the reformers, which became legalized by an act of parlia- 
ment in the £ear 1550, the date of the termination of the Captivity of the 
Evangelical Church, and the epoch of the rebuilding of the temple of the 
Christian faith. " Geneva," says Mosheim, " was acknowledged as a 
sister Church ; and the theological system there established by Calvin 
was adopted and rendered the public rule of faith in England." 

The power and influence of England rendered a greater degree of 
strength and safety to the protestants in other parts of Europe — kings 
raised the standard of the cross, and " the kingdoms of this world be- 



SECOND CAREER. 35 



came the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ,"— prospectively in part, 
exactly as the kingdoms of Canaan became the kingdoms of Israel by 
the promise of God when Israel entered upon the conquest of those 
nations. 

In Calvin is seen the chief builder of the temple, the Zerubbabel of 
the modern Israel — " the theologian of the Reformation," says Melanc- 
thon — " the doctor of the Reformation," says D'Aubigne — " the most 
exalted character since the days of the apostles," says Scalinger. Yet 
his name is often traduced. 

It is said that Calvin instigated the punishment of Servetus by death 
for heresy. But it appears from the notes in Murdock's Mosheim, that 
though he had caused his arrest for the alleged crime of heresy and 
blasphemy, yet that he and others of the clergy of Geneva conceded 
with the court not to punish him with death. The case seems to be 
that an old law of the empire existed for the punishment of heresy, that 
it was sanctioned by public opinion, (there having as yet been no issue 
between the Protestants and Romans upon that subject, except as to 
what constituted heresy,) and that the Presbyterian ministry of Geneva 
opposed the punishment of Servetus by death who had been arrested 
upon the complaint of Calvin. The court however would not yield. It 
appears also that Servetus had given Calvin cause of offense by oppro- 
brious accusations against him as a minister of the gospel : — to what ex- 
tent he may have been culpable in this respect depends upon the aggra- 
vation of the offence, which cannot perhaps be understood at this day. 
In view of the melancholy event, it should not be forgotten that Calvin's 
course was vindicated by the mildest men of that day — by Melancthon 
in particular, who wrote a letter to Geneva to express his approbation.* 
Nevertheless, far be it from the admirers of the great and the good to 
draw a veil over their errors. A true statement of the affair seems to be, 
that the conduct of Servetus was reprehensible, that Calvin made more 
account of it than was justifiable, and that the State alone was respons- 
ible for the fatal result. The refinement of the Church at a later age 
of its Period of progress ought not to be looked for in those turbulent 
times when it had just emerged from Rome. 

Perhaps the most remarkable instance of obloquy in repute at this day, 
is the imputation to Calvin of the doctrine of the damnation of infants, 
as he appears to have been the first writer of celebrity in modern times 
in support of their salvation. In his article upon " Pedobaptism," in his 
" Institutes," he says respecting the passage in the 19th chapter of 
Matthew, " of such is the kingdom of heaven ," that the expression " of' 
such" clearly shows that infants themselves, and those like them, are in- 
tended." Again, in his controversy with Servetus and the Anabaptists, 
in which he had adduced as an instance of regeneration in infancy the 
sanctification of John the Baptist, he says, " nor can they gain any ad- 



Murdock's Mosheim and Rees' Cyclopedia. 



36 CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 



vantage by their frivolous evasion, that this was only a single case, 
which does not justify the conclusion that the Lord generally acts in this 
manner with infants" Where he speaks of the salvation of " some" in 
another passage, he has reference to the additional testimony there is in 
favor of the salvation of the children of believers. 

In closing this digression, to render a tribute of justice to the memory 
of him who has given shape to the Protestant Church in spiritual things, 
it seems proper to recognize his devotion to the cause of truth of his 
great qualifications, which appear in the surpassing force of his diction 
and acumen of thought, his accuracy and power of argument, and the 
profoundness of his erudition. " He was at twenty-two years of age," 
says Scaliger, " the greatest scholar in Europe." His voluminous writ- 
ings, and the unequaled and almost incredible number of his valuable 
public and theological services, evince the untiring energies and exalted 
character of the theologian of the Reformation. 

There was a unity of faith in the churches of the Reformation. Ex- 
cept in the matter of Christ's presence in the Lord's supper, the reform- 
ers concurred in the same fundamental doctrines, the lost condition of 
man by the fall, and the way of salvation by the election, predestination and 
purpose of God and renewing of the Holy Spirit, through the atonement ef- 
fected by the vicarious saciifce of Jesus Christ. These principles, as held 
by Calvin, were in like manner professed by Luther, as appears particu- 
larly in his answer to Erasmus entitled " DeServo Arbitrio ;" — and were 
essentially supported by the Protestant Churches in general. 

At the death of Edward VI. (A. D. 1553,) the enemies of the Church 
rose, as did the Samaritans of old, and made a strong effort to put a stop 
to its progress. Queen Mary, in a bloody reign, endeavored to restore 
the Roman religion in England, but failed. During the reign of Eliza- 
beth, her successor, there was a combination of the Roman Catholic 
powers on the continent to carry out the scheme of the French and 
Spanish courts to overthrow the protestant religion. Says Hume, " no 
less than a total and universal extermination of the protestants by fire 
and sword was concocted by Philip and Catherine de Medicis." 

Elizabeth, in view of the threatening array of hostility, put forth her 
strength and exercised a vigorous authority in both houses of parlia- 
ment. In the year 1571 she caused the passage of a statute, that " who- 
soever by bulls should publish absolutions or other rescripts of the pope, 
or should by means of them reconcile any man to the Church of Rome, 
such offender, as well as those who were reconciled, should be guilty of 
treason. The penalty of a premunire was imposed on every one who 
imported any Agnus Dei, Crucifix or such other implement of supersti- 
tion, consecrated by the pope."* At the same session of parliament, the 
termination of 21 years from the revisal of the liturgy by Edward VI., 



* Hume's History of England. 



SECOND CAREER. 37 



the liturgy was again revised, reduced to thirty-nine articles retaining 
the Evangelical Faith, and ratified by the Queen. Thus England was 
purged from the idolatry of Rome, and the temple of the Protestant 
Church " opened; 1 (Rev. 11 : 19.) 

England was now regarded by the emperor and pope as the citadel and 
bulwark of the protestant religion. Says Hume upon succeeding events, 
" Elizabeth was now sensible of the dangerous situation in which she 
now stood. In the massacre of Paris" (A. D. 1572,) " she saw the re- 
sult of that general conspiracy" (above mentioned,) " for the extermina- 
tion of the protestants ; and she knew that she herself, as the head and 
protectress of the neiv religion, was exposed to the utmost fury and resent- 
ment of the Catholics."* 

Ninety-one years of the Progressive Period, (the Periods of captivity 
and restoration,) have passed since the resurrection of the witnesses in 
the wilderness of Bohemia in 1480, leaving a balance of 300 years for 
the completion of their work preparatory to their regal state, the millen- 
nium of the Christian Church in this Career. In this short space of time 
they have made large conquests in Europe. The mightiest kings have 
been humbled, and many nations converted to Protestantism. The three 
Scandinavian kingdoms, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and two Brit- 
ish kingdoms, England and Scotland, (all outside the Roman empire, 
according to IfacchiavelJ have become protestant. Within the empire, 
France wavers in convulsion, and Germany, a tenth part of the empire, 
has fallen. 

In the plan of this Career in the Apocalypse as in that of the first, two 
associated churches come to view after the completion of the temple. The 
old church (Israel) first appears, having its numeral appellation of 144 
thousand, (Rev. 14,) — (the scene having been changed and the Roman 
Church exhibited in the 12th and 13th chapters in the Apocalyptic 
drama.) This Church (the woman in the wilderness,) having passed 
through a Career and entered upon another in faithful devotion to God, 
bears upon the foreheads of its adherents the mark of long-tried fidelity 
and designation of its constancy. The Gentile Church (the second in 
order,) next appears, those who had " gotten the victory over the beast," 
(Rev. 15.) In this Career the offices of the two Churches are changed. 
The Period of bondage is accomplished, not by Israel as before, but by 
the Gentile Church, to whom the Careers pertain according to the ex- 
change, (page 18th,) and the gospel is published to all the nations, and 
opposition to the gospel removed by virtue of the title of Israel to the 
world. As before stated, these two Churches and the scriptures appear 
to be the " four angels" whose Progressive Period is symbolically relat- 
ed in the 9th chapter — prepared for an hour and a day, and a month and 
a year, 391 years and 15 days. In the second prophecy, the particular 



* Hume's History of England. 



38 CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 



events of this Period during the synchronal Periods of captivity and res- 
toration, which are found above, are sketched in the 11th chapter. An 
account of the particular instrumentalities in this Period is given in the 
14th, 15th and 16th chapters. 

Accordingly, the epoch of the operations of the two Churches detailed 
in the last mentioned three chapters is 1480, the date of the connection 
of the two Churches, of the position of the " woman in the wilderness" 
on " mount Zion ," and the loosing of the " four angels," as appears from 
their history before cited, (page 33d.) The instrumentalities of the 
Church were feeble until the end of the Period of darkness, 40 years. 
There were no "sons of thunder" until the Lutheran reformation com- 
menced in 1517. The work of reform being the work of Israel, all the 
reformers therefore, represented by the three angel preachers and two 
political powers, are found connected with and rising from her, in the 
14th chapter, in which she appears under the appellation of " 144 thou- 
sand," her numeral name. As there have not been three descriptions of 
preachers, each separately engaged in but one of the offices of the first 
three angels, it appears that they denote three general characteristics of 
the preaching of this Period. These characteristics are of a spiritual 
and political character — comprising the inculcation of the gospel, the de- 
nunciation of Babylon and the condemnation of the adherents of the 
" beast" in the preserce of the holy angels and the Lamb* To the first, 
the early reformers directed their efforts with great zeal. Luther gave 
the Bible to the people of Germany in their own language and trumpeted 
gospel truth upon the four winds. Calvin engaged in this enterprise 
upon a large scale. He advocated an ecclesiastical system which allows 
no rank or ecclesiastical power in the ministry, and was instrumental in 
the establishment of an institute in Geneva, having for its purpose the 
universal dissemination of Christian knowledge according to the faith 
and practice of the Presbyterian Church. " The views and projects of 
this great man," says Mosheim, u were grand and extensive. He laid a 
scheme of sending forth from this little republic the succors and minis- 
ters that were to promote and propagate the protestant cause through 
the most distant nations." In the 17th and 18th centuries some advance 
was made in extending the circulation of the scriptures. In the 19th 
century a great work has been done, and most of the nations and tribes 
of the earth may now read the bible in their own language. The ful- 
fillment of the offices of the last two angel preachers by the evangelical 
ministry in this Period is well known and therefore requires no re- 
marks. The great prince, known by the appellation of " the head of the 
Church" and recognized by Christendom as the chief supporter of the 
Protestant religion, who has extended the power of the British throne to 
all quarters, from the reign of Elizabeth to this day, in support of the 
doctrines of the Reformation, appears to be designated by the regal re- 



SECOND CAREER. 39 



former (Rev. 14 : 14.) The other angel having a sickle may be found 
perhaps in German history — time will show. The end of his commis- 
sion appears to be the subversion of the papal states in Italy, which cover 
a space of 1600 furlongs, at the termination of this Period A.D. 1871. 

The appearance of the seceding Gentile Church, "those who had 
gotten the victory over the beast" (Rev. 15,) at the date of their deliver- 
ance from bondage (A. D. 1480,) is indicated by their singing the song 
of Moses, — signifying by the type the termination of a Period of bond- 
age. ''The temple of the tabernacle of the testimony" is perhaps typi- 
fied by the tabernacle of the Lord, which the children of Israel erected 
soon after their exit from bondage. The seven plagues, which follow, 
come not necessarily within the plan of this work, seem to require much 
historical as well as scriptural qualification to solve them, and will there- 
fore be passed over here with the single remark, that they clearly come 
within the operations of the " four angels" in the 9th chapter, " prepared 
for an hour and a day, and a month and a year" — terminating according 
to previous computation in 1871. 

Millennium. — Accordingly, the Ecclesiastical Millennium of the 
Protestant Church, the reign of Christ a thousand years (Rev. 20 : 4,) will 
terminate in the year of our Lord 2871. 



PURITAN CHURCH. 

ECCLESIASTICAL CASEER. 

Genealogy and Mission.— The remnant of the seed of the woman, 
which has been treated of in preceding Careers as a Church, though not 
in form as such until the fourteenth century, and which appears under 
the appellation of those men wfw had the seal of God in their foreheads 
(Rev. 9 : 4,) at the opening of the second Career of the Christian Church, 
must be regarded according to the developments as a new Church at 
that date. Before this they acted as a delegated body. From this epoch, 
though still pursuing the cause of the two witnesses, yet they appear as 
an independent body in the prosecution of their own Career, and entitled, 
from their primitive character, to an Offspring invested with ecclesias- 
tical and political properties at the termination of 300 years from the 
date of their epoch as a new Church, May 10, 1330, (O. S.) 

On the 12th of June, 1630, (N. S.) (less than a month from the expira- 
tion of the Period denoting the rise of the Offspring Church,) the Mas- 
sachusetts Colony, called " the Governor and Company of Massachusetts' 
Bay" arrived at Salem with a Colonial charter from the king of Eng- 
land. " Before this company sailed from England, April 1630," says 
Bradford, " they addressed a letter signed by Winthrop [their governor,] 
Saltonstall, Johnson, Dudley, Phillips, Coddington, and others, to their 
brethren of the Episcopal Church, in which they acknowledge the church 
of England as their mother, blessing God for their birth and education 
as Englishmen, expressing christian charity for all the pious and good 
of that community, and desiring their prayers for the success of the en- 
terprise in which they had engaged."* The Massachusetts' Colony is 
therefore identified as the Offspring Church of 1630, the protestant 
Church, from which it is lineally descended, having been found to be a 
continuation of " those who had the seal of God in their foreheads? (or of 
the " woman clothed with the sun.") This Church then is the nucleus 
of the American Church, designated (according to the established course 
of things,) to accomplish the associated Ecclesiastical and Temporal 
Careers of this Administration, and eventually to give external form to 
the Protestant Church at large, of which it is a part. Though it is at 
this time ecclesiastically distinct, yet, spiritually, it is connected with 
all other churches of the same faith — holding to the same fundamental 
principles of salvation: — and with such it co-operates in prosecuting the 
enterprises of this Career, most of which have not become history. 

Millennium. — The "King" and "Bishop" of this Church, to whom 
alone they acknowledge spiritual allegiance, is " the Lord of heaven." 

* Bradford's History of Massachusetts. 



ECCLESIASTICAL CAREER 41 

At an expense of the sacrifice of much worldly interest they emigrated 
to the American wilderness to enjoy liberty in the worship of God. In 
this " place of refuge" they providently guarded their seclusion from the 
world by legal enactments, excluding innovators from sects whose history 
in Europe exhibited them as disturbers of the peace of Christian society, 
and on account of whom they had left the old world, braved sea and cli- 
mate, and lost by death hundreds of their numbers. Yet, strange to say, 
they soon found that fines, imprisonments, banishment and even death, 
were not preventives of intrusion. 

" Their treatment of Anne Hutchinson was, indeed, unjustifiable. — 
The severity of their magistracy to the Quakers (who franticly sought 
for death,) was soon stayed by the opposing voice of the people, who did 
not relish sanguinary proceedings against unequal offenses. 

Their extensive moral and religious enterprises have pervaded the 
nation, made the world better, and laid a foundation upon which they 
may contribute greatly towards the elevation and spiritual good of man 
in subsequent time. Their rapid progress during the first fourth of this 
Period foreshadows the typical developments of their future glory. 



TEMPORAL CAEEER 



TABULAR VIEW OF THE EARLY PERIODS. iDates. Periods. 



Epoch. 



Bondage. 



Perplexity. 



Captivity. 



Reform. 



Date of the arrival of the Massachusetts' Col- 
ony at Salem, June - 

Period of bondage to the crown of England 
from the date of the arrival at Salem to the 
date of the battle at Trenton — resulting in 
the defeat of the British army by General 
Washington, and their retreat into winter 
quarters, December, - 

Period of military oppression, terminated at 
the date of the acquisition of essential aid 
from France, consisting of a naval fleet 
bearing six thousand troops and large sup- 
plies under the command of Rochambeau, 
July, 

Period of national trials and perplexities from 
the date of the battle of Trenton, Decem- 
ber, 3776, to the date of the assembling of 
Congress in the last year of the administra- 
tion of President Madison, December, 

Period of political inferiority to the slave States 
from the date of the adoption of the State 
Constitution of Massachusetts (June 1780,) 
to the date of the advocacy of the admis- 
sion of California, as a free State, by Pres- 
ident Taylor and both houses of Congress, 
in the summer of the year 

Period of political reform from the date of the 
ascendant of Americanism (1850,) to the 
completion of the temple of Liberty, - 



A.D. 

1630 



1776 



1780 



1816 



1850 



1871 



Vrs. 



uep 



3h) 



40 



70 



21 



y£. 



150 



91 



The Reformation in Europe by the Christian Church being only of an 
ecclesiastical character, the forms of civil government, though modified by 
the influence of Christianity, have remained as they were. Hence, by 
the uniou of State with the Church, which has to a great extent prevailed 
and embarrassed it, the intolerance (of the State — rather than the Church,) 
in the seventeenth century occasioned the emigration of the Puritans 
to America. 

To this Offspring Church pertains the office of effecting the political 
reformation of the world. 

Bondage.— Early in this Period the Massachusetts' Colony became 
strengthened by confederation. 

*' No restriction was placed upon them except that contained in the 
Charter, that no laws should be made repugnant to the laws of England ; 



TEMPORAL CAREER* 43 



and this was construed very liberally, to mean that no part'of the Eng- 
lish law was in force there till it was expressly re-enacted. At first the 
magistrates governed without any rule than their own sense of right and 
their interpretation of the law of God. But the people becoming 
jealous of so large a discretion, a code, or 'Body of Liberties,' 
was established, consisting of one hundred articles, drawn up with sin- 
gular brevity and clearness, embracing many of the best and most liberal 
provisions of the English Common Law, and, in some respects, in advance 
both of English and American law at the present day. This code be- 
came the basis of legislation, not only in Massachusetts, but throughout 
New England, the other colonies adopting many of its most important 
provisions."* 

From the first, the sentiments of this people strongiy inclined to Re- 
publicanism. By confederations and alliances they extended their influ- 
ence and became a leading power, especially in New England. Through- 
out the colonies the spirit of liberty seems to have had a spontaneous 
growth. Ultimately the measures of the British ministry became intol- 
erable, the Declaration of Independence by the thirteen United States 
followed, and the battle at Trenton in December, 1776, marks the sepa- 
ration of the colonies from England by the decisive victory of the Amer- 
ican arms, the termination of the first Period of bondage, H6h years. — 
Another victory by Washington immediately followed, at Princeton, at 
the close of which (early in January,) both armies retired to winter 
quarters. In just 3£ years from this date, (July 10, 1780,) the French 
fleet under the command of Rochambeau arrived, from the accession of 
which, their Period of oppression, by a superior power, was terminated. 

Note. — New England, now populated by the segregation of Puritans 
(from whom proceeds this Career,) is involved by alliance with the Con- 
federated American States, and her Careers are now emphatically 
American. The Declaration of Independence, which issued from the 
first ptiiod of bondage, is the ruling director in this Career, like Moses, 
or Christ, or the " two prophets," in their Careers, at the terminations of 
the corresponding Periods of which they appeared. 

Perplexity. — To the national trials characterizing this Period, con- 
sisting in general of political strife in settling the character and measures 
of the government, frequent wars with the Indian tribes, trouble with 
France, war with Algiers, war with Tripoli, and a second fratricidal war 
with England ; — to these there came a general termination at the close 
of this Period, occasioning the following noticeable allusion in the mes- 
sage of President Madison to Congress in the month of December 1816 : — 

"lean indulge the proud reflection that the American neople have 
reached in safety and success, their fortieth year as an independent 
nation ; that for nearly an entire generation they have had experience 

* Weber's Outlines of Universal History. 



44 



PURITAN CHURCH. 



of their present constitution, * * * that they have found it to bear 
the trials of adverse as well as prosperous circumstances." 

In contrast to this Period, general peace and great prosperity have 
followed. 

Captivity.— Upon the foundation of the American Doctrine of the 
social rights of man, that " all men are born free and equal," the State of 
Massachusetts formed their Constitution, which was adopted by the peo- 
ple in convention, in the month of June, 1780— the date of which is the 
epoch of the Period of the captivity of the American States. In the 
Revolution an anti- American element remained, in the investment of an 
oligarchy with the despotic power of the institution of slavery, who, from 
their advantage in the Confederacy, held a check upon the progress of 
liberty, and a superiority in the national councils prejudicial to the in- 
terests of the States, until its indicated termination at the end of seventy 
years, A. D. 1850. — when Americanism appeared in the ascendant— (as 
stated in the Table.) 

This Period, as well as the former, is a Period of exile from the old 
world. Though the American colonies released themselves from bond- 
age, they still remained restricted to the country of their refuge. They 
could set up their standard only there. 

Reform and Restoration. — At the epoch of this Period (A.D. 1850,) 
in accordance with the established course of things, the work of reform 
and construction of the temple commenced. In the admission of Cali- 
fornia as a free State by Congress, the free States ha/e a numerical 
superiority, and the temple of Liberty, consisting of principles harmon- 
izing with the spirit of the declaration of 76, begins to rise. According 
to the typical demonstration the work will be prosecuted and finished by 
successors of its founders, the President and Congress of the United 
States, who represent the sovereignty of the American people. In ac- 
cordance with the typical demonstration it is now encountering the op- 
position of the Samaritans. It is to be hoped that the present federal 
administration, whose time coincides exactly with that of the reign of 
the bloody Queen Mary* (from '53 to '57,) in the Period of the con- 
struction of the temple of the Protestant faith, will be less sanguinary. 
The Samaritans and Mary gained nothing but a delay of the work for 
a short season. The work of God is sure. The several corresponding 
examples on preceding pages clearly testify the completion of the temple, 
and the purging of the country from the element so incongruous with 
the American declaration of human rights, at the termination of this Pe- 
riod of 21 years, A. D., 1871. 

In 1850, the United States burst her ancient restrictions and returned 
whence they came — not by a return of the population, as did the Jews, 
when restored from Babylon to their Canaan — the world is the Canaan 

* See page 36th. 



TEMPORAL CAREER. 45 



■of this people ; but by the introduction of their power and American 
principles into the dominions of the old dynasties. Her exclusion of 
the British dominion from Central America by the Clayton and Bulwer 
treaty, her action with Austria according to her principles announced 
in Webster's Hulseman letter, her example of sympathy for the op- 
pressed in the relief of the Hungarian exiles by a naval force, and the 
refusal of Mr. Cass at Rome to kneel to the pope, on the occasion of a 
complimentary visit of the ambassadors, exhibit a formidable debut in 
the year 1850 — and an initiatory of the line of her march during her 
Period of progress. Here the Offspring Church appears in the sacred 
text (being the next in order according to the arrangement of the Apoc- 
alypse,) the angel who came down from heaven,* having great power ; 
and (in the train of his progress, just entered,) "the earth [the political 
world] ivas lightened with his glory." (Rev. 18 : 1.) 

From a retrospective view of the past, from the typical indications 
and the developments of the 18th and 19th chapters of the book of St. 
John's Revelation, the prospective vision of the remainder of this Pe- 
riod of reform and restoration is indeed awfully sublime and terrific 
The triumphs of truth are at hand, and error must yield to the reign of 
the principles of the crucified Savior. 



The latter part of this Career, which runs 300 years later than that of 
the Christian Church, appears to be signified by the "little season" 
(Rev. 20 : 3,) when the policy of the dragon will again appear in the 
governments of " the nations," (as formerly at Rome,) and great num- 
bers will fall from the support of the truth. The battle of Gog and 
Magog, terminated by the intervention of the Lord, closes. The sym- 
bols and general figurative language in the description of the " New 
Jerusalem" appear to be significant of the state of the Church beyond 
the bounds of time. 

* Strictly speaking, not the United States in persona, but her minister abroad. 
Mark here, that America is introduced iu the Apocalypse, not in the davs of 
her youth, as was the Protestant Church, before she "rose to heaven" (Rev. 
11 ; 12,)— nor in her infaney, as was the Roman Church (Rev. 12,) — but in the 
age of her manhood. 



APPENDIX 



THE WOMAN IN THE WILDERNESS. 

At the date of the epoch of the state Church in the Christian Roman 
empire, (A. D. 330,) there was a large body of evangelical dissenters, 
comprising several sects. Though numerous, they were overborne by 
the power of the state and ecclesiastically disfranchised. They 
soon became obscure, and were treated at a later day as outcasts from 
society. Though followed by persecution and the endeavors of Rome 
from age to age to crush them, a line of them continued until relief 
came through the preponderating influence of the Protestant powers in 
the seventeenth century. These dissenters appear to have been the 
succession of the apostolic Church, rendered memorable by the appel- 
lation of the "woman clothed with the Sun" (Rev. 12 : 1.) Their appella- 
tions of Catharists or Puritans, and heretics, by the Roman writers, who 
have thus characterized them, even before the reign of Constantine, and 
throughout the middle ages, are testimonies of a coeval dissenting suc- 
cession. 

In the year 251 Novatian was ordained the pastor of a Church in the 
city of Rome, which maintained no fellowship with the metropolitan 
Church, whose writers say that he was the first antipope and the author 
of the heresy of Puritanism. These writers complain loudly of the 
schism that was made by the Novatians, whose difference from the other 
Church consisted only in matters of form and discipline. This sect ex- 
tended into Africa and Asia Minor.* 

" Constantine's first letters [to the dissenters] were mild and gentle. 
But he was soon persuaded into more violent measures ; for out of his 
great zeal to extinguish heresy, he issued edicts against all such as his 
favorite bishops persuaded him were the authors and abettors of it, and 
particularly against the*Novatians, Valentinians, Marcionists and others, 
whom, after reproaching with being enemies of truth, destructive coun- 
sellors, &c, he deprives of the liberty of meeting for worship, either in 
public or private places, and gives all their oratories to the orthodox 
Church."f 

These people yet had much success, notwithstanding the power ex- 
ercised against them. Says Mr. Robinson concerning Novatian, u great 
numbers followed his example, and all over the empire Puritan churches 
were constituted, and flourished through the succeeding two hundred 
years. Afterwards, when penal laws obliged them to lurk in corners, 

* Wm. Jones' His. Ch. Church, p. 142, 143. 
t Jones' Hist. Ch. Church, p. 137- 



APPENDIX. 47 



and worship God in private, they were distinguished by a variety of 
names, and a succession of them continued until the Reformation."* Says 
Dr. Lardner, " the vast extent of this sect is manifest from the names of 
the authors who have mentioned them, or written against them, and from 
the several parts of the Roman empire in which they were found."f 

There was also in Africa a sect of evangelical dissenters, the Dona- 
tists, whose epoch was about half a century later than the Novatians, 
with whom and the State Church they agreed in the doctrines of faith. 
Says Mr. Jones in his account of them from the writings of Dr. Lardner, 
" the Donatists were very numerous, for we learn that in the year 411, 
there was a famous conference held at Carthage, between the Catholics 
and the Donatists, at which were present 286 Catholic bishops, and of 
the Donatists 279 ; which, when we consider the superior strictness of 
their discipline, must give us a favorable opinion of their numbers, and 
especially as they were frequently the subjects of severe and sanguinary 
persecutions from the dominant party." 

There was also in the east a sect of evangelical dissenters called 
Paulicians, who rose about the year 660, of whom Constantine, who 
took the name of Sylvanus, appears to have been the founder. He was 
stoned to death by the order of a Greek officer. This people seem to 
have been almost incessantly subjected to persecution for a period of 
150 years. " In this, as well as in former instances, the blood of the 
martyrs was the seed of the church. A succession of teachers and 
churches arose : and a person named Sergius, who had labored among 
them in the ministry of the gospel thirty-seven years, is acknowledged, 
even by their vilest calumniators, to have been a most exemplary Chris- 
tian. The persecution had, however, some intermissions, until at length 
Theodora, the Greek empress, exerted herself against them beyond all 
her predecessors. She sent inquisitors throughout all Asia Minor in 
search of these sectaries, and is computed to have killed by the gibbet, 
by fire, and by the sword, a hundred thousand persons. Such was the 
state of things at the commencement of the ninth century.":}: 

"In the year 590 the bishops of Italy and of the Grisons, to the num- 
ber of nine, rejected the communion of the pope, as of an heretic. This 
schism had already continued from the year 553, and lasted near as long 
after ; so little were they persuaded at that time of the popes' infallibility 
that to lose communion with them was to lose the communion of the 
Church, or that they held their ordinations from the hand of the popes, 
and to the bishops subjected to their jurisdiction."^ 

It appears then that at the epoch of the Roman Church, other sects 
existed, composing a numerous body of evangelical^ christians, who re- 

* Robinson's Ec. Researches, p. 126. 

f Lardner's Works, 4 to Ed. Vol. 2, p. 57. 

1 Jones' Church History, p. 187. 

§ Dr. Allix on An. Chs. of Piedmont, p. 35 



48 APPENDIX, 



jected their communion, that they flourished for several centuries, and 
became enlarged by accessions from the dominant Church. That these 
people were "the woman in the wilderness," appears evident from their 
character and condition, and from their later history. 

In the ninth century there was a large accession to the dissenters in 
the valleys of Piedmont and the neighboring country of the Milanese by 
the preaching of Claude, who was promoted to the see of Turin in 817. 

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries their churches became so nu- 
merous in the last mentioned localities that the State Church became 
alarmed, and exercised a mighty military power to extirpate them, by 
which great multitudes were destroyed, and the dissenting Church at 
length disappeared in that quarter. Says Weber, " Provence and Lan- 
guedoc in the South of France, where, under a beautiful and serene sky, 
a prosperous race of burghers had developed their free institutions, 
where the cheerful Provencal poetry of the Troubadours had indulged 
its petulant and satirical humor at the expense of priests and bishops, 
was the residence of these Albigenses (so called from the city of Alby.) 
Against these men and their protector, Raimond VI. of Toulouse, Inno- 
cent III. ordered the cross to be preached by the Cistercian monks. — 
Hereupon, bands of savage warriors, with some fanatical monks, bearing 
the cross before them, marched into the blooming land, destroyed the 
rich cities, towns and villages, slaughtered the innocent with the guilty, 
lighted up the flames of death, and filled the whole country with murder, 
plunder and desolation. Raimond for a long time resisted his enemies ; 
but when Louis VIII., excited by an ignoble cupidity for extending his 
possessions, undertook the war against the heretics, the count submitted, 
and concluded a peace by which he surrendered the greater part of his 
territories to France. But a desolatory war of twenty years had de- 
stroyed the beautiful culture of the south of France, turned the land into 
a wilderness, and silenced forever the cheerful song of the Troubadour. 
A few years afterwards, the gallant peasant republic of the Stedingers 
was visited in a similar manner by a war of extermination, at the instance 
of the bishops of Bremen and Ratzburg."* 

The following sketches from the " Introduction of Dr. Edgar's " Vari- 
ations of Popery" present a comprehensive view of the dissenters under 
their modern appellation of Waldensians. 

"The antiquity of the Waldensians is admitted by their enemies, and 
is beyond all question. Waldensianism, says Rainerus the Dominican, 
is the ancientest heresy ; and existed, according to some, from the time 
of Sylvester, [pope in the reign of Constantine,] and according to others, 
from the days of the apostles.f This is the reluctant testimony of an 

* Weber's Outlines of Universal History, p. 148. 

f Aliqui enim dicunt, quod duravit a tempore Sylvestri ; aliqui a tempore 
Apostolorum. Rainerus, 3, 4. 



APPENDIX. 49 



Inquisitor in the thirteenth century. He grants that Waldensianism 
preceded every other heresy. 

" The Waldensians, says Rainerus, Seysel and Alexander, dated their 
own origin and the defection of the Romish communion from the Papacy 
of Sylvester.* Leo, who flourished in the reign of Constantine, they 
regard as their founder. Romanism at this period ceased to be Christi- 
anity, and the inhabitants of the valleys left the unholy communion. — 
These simple shepherds lived, for a long series of years, in the seques- 
tered recesses of the Alpine retreats, opposed to popish superstition and 
error. 

" The Waldensians, as they were ancient, were also numerous. Vig- 
nier, from other historians, gives a high idea of their populousness. The 
Waldensians, says this author, multiplied wonderfully in France, Italy, 
and especially in Lombardy, notwithstanding the Papal exertions for 
their extirpation. 

"This sect, says Nangis, were infinite in number; appeared, says 
Rainerus, in nearly every country ; multiplied, says Sanderus, through 
all lands ; infected, says Caesarius, a thousand cities, and spread their 
contagion, says Ciaconius, through almost the whole Latin world.f 
Scarcely any region, says Gretzer, remained free and untainted from 
this pestilence. The Waldensians, says Popliner, spread, not only 
through France, but also through nearly all the European coasts, and 
appeared in Gaul, Spain, England, Scotland, Italy, Germany, Bohemia, 
Saxony, Poland, and Lithuania.:}: 

"The diocese ofPapan, it was computed, contained forty Waldensian 
schools, and eighty thousand Waldensian population. The Albigensian 
errors, according to Daniel, infected all Languedoc, and corrupted the 
nobility and the populace. The Romish temples, according to Bernard, 
were left without people, the people without pastors, and the pastors 
without respect. 

" Waldensianism was, in anticipation, a system of the purest Protest- 
antism, many ages before the Reformation. This, in its fullest sense, 
has, with the utmost candor, been acknowledged by many cotemporary 
and succeeding historians, who were attached to Romanism. The 
Waldensians, says Gratias, ' differed little from the Reformed in any- 
thing.' 'The Henricians and Waldensians,' says Mezeray, 'held 
nearly the same dogmas as the Calvinists.' Moren, Tillet, Serrus, Ev- 
enswyn, and Marca, grant the ' agreement of the Waldensian faith in 
all the principal articles with the Reformed theology.' 

* Romana ecclesia non est ecclesia Jesu Christi, sed ecclesia malignantium, 
eamque sub Sylvestro deficisse. — Alex. 17. 368. Seysel 9. 

fFere enim nulla est terra, in qua hsec secta non sit. Rain. c. 4. Infecerunt 
usque ad mille civitates. Caesar, V. 21. 

t Non per Galliam solum totam, sed etiam per omnes pene Europse oras. Pop- 
lin. 1, 7. 

7 



50 APPENDIX. 



" The sanctity of the Waldensian morality corresponded with the pu- 
rity of the Waldensian faith. The piety, benevolence, innocence, and 
holiness of this people have challenged the esteem and extorted the ap- 
probation of friend and foe. 

" Rainerus, quoted by Alexander, admits * their show of piety and 
integrity before men.' This is pretty well for a Dominican Inquisitor, 
who discovered, however, that Waldensian piety was mere dissimula- 
tion. But Rainerus also acknowledges ' their sobriety, modesty, chasti- 
ty, and temperance, with their aversion to taverns, balls, vanity, anger, 
scurrility, detraction, levity, swearing and falsehood. He grants their 
attention, men and women, young and old, night and day, to learning or 
teaching ; and he had seen a Waldensian rustic, who repeated Job, 
word for word, and many who perfectly knew the whole of the New 
Testament.' 

" Seysel acknowledged { their purity of life, which excelled that of 
other Christians.' Lewis, the French King, asserted ' their superiority, 
both to himself and to his other subjects, who were professors of Cathol- 
icism.' * Alexander vindicates the Waldensians from the calumny of 
Ebrard and Emeric, who had accused them of avarice, lewdness and 
unchastity. Thuanus records their detestation of perjury, imprecations, 
scurrility, litigation, sedition, gluttony, drunkenness, whoredom, divina- 
tion, sacrilege, theft, and usury. He mentions their chastity, which 
they accounted a particular honor, their cultivation of manners, their 
knowledge of letters, their expertness in writing, and their skill in 
French. 

" The Waldensians, notwithstanding the sanguinary persecutions of 
Romanism, still exist, and still are persecuted in their native valleys. 
A population of twenty thousand always remain, and exhibit, to an ad- 
miring world, all the grandeur of truth and all the beauty of holiness. 
Their relics still show what they have been, and they continue unal- 
tered amid the revolution of ages. The world has changed around 
this sacred society ; while its principles and practice through all the vi- 
cissitudes of time, live immutably the same. The Waldensian Church, 
though despised by the Roman hierarchy, illuminated, in this manner, 
the dark ages ; and appears, in a more enlightened period, the clearest 
drop in the ocean of truth, and shines the brightest constellation in the 
firmament of holiness ; sparkles the richest gem in the diadem of Im- 
manuel, and blooms the fairest flower in the garden of God." f 

Before the termination of the first Period of the " Woman in the 
Wilderness." A. D. 1590, (1260 years from 330,) most of these people 
had been either merged with the Calvinistic Churches of France and 

* Puriorem quam cseteri Christiani vitara agunt. Seysel, 92. Me et csetero 
populo meo Catholico, meliores illi viri sunt. Camer. 419. 
t Edgar's Variations of Popery, pp. 53-58, 



APPENDIX. 51 



Geneva, or exterminated by the power of Rome.* The larger part of 
the remainder at this date had their residence in the valleys of Pied- 
mont and Saluces, under the govsrnment of the Duke of Savoy. The 
defeat of the combined forces of the Roman Catholic powers for the 
extermination of the Protestants, by the destruction of the "Invincible 
Armada" of Spain fitted out against England in 1588, and the success 
of Henry IV. in France in 1590, which gave the adherents of the evan- 
gelical faith an ascendency of power in Europe — together with the con- 
sideration of the loyalty of the Waldenses and the toleration of their 
religion by the Duke of Savoy — appear to be the events marking their 
first exit from the wilderness in 1590, which, like tfyeir first flight into 
the wilderness, was not complete. 

Their history in 1655, exhibits a wonderful termination of the second 
Period, computed from 395, (when the woman fled upon the wings of an 
eagle,) in which it seems not easy to determine which was most conspic- 
uous, the rage of the adversary, or the humanity and zeal of the friends 
of truth. The valleys of Piedmont then contained the " woman in the 

* FOUNTAIN OF PERSECUTION. 

PAPAL BULL AGAINST THE WALDENSES. 

The persecuting character of the Popes is well exemplified in the bull of Inno- 
cent VIII., investing Albert de Capitaneis, arch-DEACON of Cremona, with power 
to act as his legate and commissioner — in which after a preamble and some pref- 
atory remarks he thus proceeds : — 

"We have heard, and it is come to our knowledge not without much 
displeasure, that certain sons of iniquity, followers of that abominable and 
pernicious sect of men called the Poor of Lyons, or Waldenses, who have long 
ago endeavored, in Piedmont and other places, to ensnare the sheep belonging 
to God, to the perdition of their souls, having damnably risen up under a feigned 
pretence of holiness, being given up to a reprobate sense, and made to err greatly 
from the way of truth, committing things contrary to the orthodox faith, offens- 
ive to the eyes of Divine Majesty, and which occasions a great hazard of souls, 
* * * \y e> therefore, having determined to use all our endeavors, and to 
employ all our care, as we are bound by the duty of our pastoral charge, to root 
up and extirpate such a detestable sect, that the hearts of believers may not be 
damnably perverted from the Catholic church, have thought good to constitute 
you, at this time, for the cause of God and the faith, the Nuncio Commissioner of 
us and of the apostolic see within the dominions of our beloved son Charles, 
Duke of Savoy, to the end that you should induce the followers of the most wicked 
sect of the Waldenses, and all others polluted with heretical pravity, to abjure 
their errors, &c; and, calling to your assistance all archbishops and bishops sea f ed 
in the said duchy, whom the Most High hath called to share with us in our cares, 
with the inquisitor, the ordinaries of the place, their vicars, &c, you proceed to 
the execution thereof against the aforenamed Waldenses, and all other heretics 
whatever, to rise up in arms against them, and, by a joint communication of proc- 
esses, to tread them under foot as venomous adders, (diligently providing that 
the people committed to their charge do persevere in the profession of the true 
faith,) bending all your endeavors, and bestowing all your care, towards so holy 
ax id ^ so necessary an extermination of the same heretics. * * * Thou, 
therefore, beloved son, taking upon thee with a devout mind the burden of so 
meritorious a work, show thyself in the execution thereof so careful in word and 
deed, and so diligent and studious, that the much-wished-for fruits may, through 
the grace of God, redound unto thee from thy labors, and that thou mayest not 
only obtain the crown of glory which is bestowed as a reward on those that prose- 
cute pious causes, but that thou mayest also ensure the approbation of us and of 
the apostolic see.— Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, on the 27th April, 1487, and 
in the third year of our popedom." 



52 APPENDIX. 



wilderness"— Saluces having been depopulated in 1601, by the duke, 
at the urgency of the pope, Clement VIII. ; — otherwheres there were 
but few of this people. The dispersed evangelical Churches in Bohe- 
mia and Poland do not appear to be of this line, as they were remains 
of the Hussite Church. 

In the month of January, 1655, an order was given by the duke of 
Savoy for the extermination of the Waldenses of Piedmont, upon which 
they dispatched messengers to their friends in the Swiss cantons. All 
the Protestant powers of Europe were forthwith aroused, and several 
embassadors were immediately sent to France and Savoy in their be- 
half, among whom was Sir Samuel Morland, from the British govern- 
ment, with a contribution of thirty-eight thousand pounds for the bene- 
fit of the Waldensian Churches — of whom more than six thousand they 
found had been massacred before their arrival. Through the interven- 
tion of these powers the residue were saved and a treaty was negotiat- 
ed, conceding them perpetual rights as a church and as a community, 
for the fulfillment of which the court of France was pledged by their 
embassador, who was also there. They afterwards, however, suffered a 
cruel persecution by France and Savoy, who broke their faith, (in ac- 
cordance with the doctrine of the Roman Church, that they are not 
bound to keep their faith with heretics,) and were banished by them 
from Piedmont, at the time of the atrocious persecution and banishment 
of the Calvinists of France, by Louis XIV. f yet, from the date of the 
treaty in 1655, (though a hard one, as it proved,) they were a people 
ecclesiastically enfranchised? by the great poivers of the earth. 



* Jones' Church History, 
f See page 46th. 



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